


Haunting the Places in Your Mind

by Vadianna



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: (and one secondary character that Kylo didn't like anyway), Canon-Typical Violence, Force Choking (Star Wars), Ghosts, Inappropriate Use of Stormtrooper Armor, Inappropriate Use of the Force, M/M, Minor Character Death, attempted execution, haunted shipwreck, political maneuvering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-05 19:39:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18372737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vadianna/pseuds/Vadianna
Summary: Supreme Leader Kylo Ren knows what he likes - immediate answers to his questions, officers who jump to obey his orders, and the peace that comes with being the undisputed head of the First Order.He also likes the old stories about legendary haunted shipwrecks.  So when one appears to hold theFinalizerhostage, he immediately orders search parties aboard to see what lives (or doesn't) inside.A First Order power struggle is set off aboard the derelict ship, and Kylo is forced to admit to himself who he wants to save.





	Haunting the Places in Your Mind

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be an excuse for sex in Stormtrooper armor, but there wound up being an excessive amount of feelings.
> 
> The attempted execution is Very Dramatic, but is more-or-less similar to the one in TLJ, without Hux getting his hand bitten (which, honestly, I should have included). The minor character deaths are very Star Wars, and are much less Dramatic.
> 
> Title is from Neil Gaiman.

Kylo, meditating successfully for the first time in over a week, was pulled from his perfect communion with the Living Force by the sudden, unscheduled lurch of the _Finalizer_  from hyperspace. The distraction snapped the connection abruptly, causing an agonizing reverberation that he felt through his entire body.

_Fuck, that hurt._  He closed his eyes and put a hand to his mouth, waiting for the burning sensation in every nerve ending to pass, waiting to see if he’d be sick on the floor. When he was sure he wasn’t in any immediate danger, he allowed himself to feel the anger and indignation that had been bubbling just below the surface of the pain.

“Cancel cycle. Lights, sixty percent.” He squinted as the room brightened. He’d programmed a careful visual and auditory easing from his meditation into the lighting routine. It was no longer necessary, of course. “Comm Captain Cherry. Audio transmission only.”

He was sitting cross-legged in the middle of his meditation chamber in nothing but a pair of tight pants. He was also angry and sweating profusely, and had been informed on more than one occasion that moments such as this weren’t a side of the Supreme Leader that any of the crew wanted or needed to see.

“Supreme Leader,” Cherry’s projection appeared, bowing slightly at the waist. Cherry was the functioning captain of the _Finalizer_ , in charge of running of the ship. She was short, gaunt, and pushing forty, with close-cropped hair that had gone prematurely silver, kept mostly hidden by her command cap.

Her features bore a perpetually sleepy expression that belied her sharpness, though apparently not today. When she didn’t continue with a status report, Kylo impatiently prompted her.

“Captain. What was that disturbance?”

“We are trying to determine that now, Supreme Leader.”

Kylo paused, taken aback. “What?”

Cherry shifted, looking to her left. There was really only one way a ship the size of the _Finalizer_  could be pulled from hyperspace, and that was with an interdictor aboard a similarly-sized or larger craft. Which shouldn’t exist after the destruction of the _Supremacy_  and all three of the First Order’s own interdictor craft. The _Finalizer_ was currently patrolling an area in the Unknown Regions where the First Order was still the largest military force. This kind of interruption should be from a powerful unknown enemy, and should have near-immediate repercussions.

“There are no other live craft in range, sir. We are currently scanning for comms, ransom, threat… anything. There’s nothing here.”

“Was it a malfunction?”

“We don’t know, Supreme Leader. I can send you an update as soon as-”

Kylo cut the comm and pushed himself from the floor, wincing as he felt the protest in every muscle, his body still singing from the abrupt disconnect.

A quick round in the ‘fresher gave him time to think and recover. Pulling a _Resurgent_ -class Star Destroyer from hyperspace was a serious act of aggression.  It was never an accident or malfunction. But as he took the extra time to make himself presentable, nothing else happened. There were no emergency comms or obvious attacks, nor did the ship re-enter hyperspace in the fifteen minutes it took him to appear on the bridge.

He walked straight down the central platform to the main observation deck, where the captain was still conferring with the lead navigation and communications officers, up from the crew pits below.

“Update,” Kylo snapped, too impatient for the usual niceties and protocol. General Hux was present, because of course he was. The disturbance must have roused him from the Trooper areas. That, or he'd somehow intercepted the comm Kylo had sent to Cherry. He was sure Hux was spying on his comms, though he hadn’t figured out how he was doing it. General Hux was a stickler for niceties and protocol, so he frowned in disapproval at Kylo. Kylo ignored him. 

Cherry dutifully updated him, looking no more awake than usual. “No explanations yet, Supreme Leader. The only thing in this sector of space is a hulk-class derelict ship, too old to identify with our systems. The _Finalizer’s_  hyperdrive will not engage, nor will the sublight engines. The drop from hyperspace has left us without momentum.”

Kylo scanned the large viewports impatiently, not spotting the derelict or anything else. “And what do you propose, Captain?”

“We’re having the techs attempt to restart the engine routines. Failing that, we may see if we can start the smaller vessels. If smaller engines work, we can launch the two large transports and push with them, see if distance from the hulk will make a difference.”

Kylo turned back around. “Why would it?”

Cherry glanced down at a nearby station below the raised platform, where another officer was staring up. He shrugged. Kylo couldn’t remember the officer’s name, or what the station was for. The officer, apparently the head of something, continued the explanation.

“We aren’t sure, but it’s the only thing in this sector of space. The longer we’re stalled, the less likely that this is a trap. It may just be an accident.”

Kylo grunted, scowling at the officer until he turned back to his station. He continued with the Captain. “It’s not an accident, Captain. Show me the scan data from the derelict.”

Cherry nodded, then pulled up the dimensional scan data on the main holosystem. An enormous view of the vessel, outlined in blue, hovered massive above the elevated observation platform.

Kylo recognized the ship immediately, and struggled to keep the reaction from his face. “This is a Nevis Bioplant.”

The small group of officers who had been speaking quietly behind him went entirely silent.

“Repeat, Supreme Leader?” Cherry asked.

“A Nevis Bioplant.” He turned back around. “At least a thousand years old. Search the archives for it.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

She gave the order to the stations below, but Kylo caught her reaction, a fairly remarkable occurrence for the unflappable Captain. Her expression was a mix of astonishment and fear. The other officers were also exchanging uneasy glances as he turned away. The crew working in the nearby pit stations quieted as the orders were repeated and the rumor spread.

Kylo prided himself on his reputation for whims and logical leaps. Most of the time, it was his temper, and he didn’t pretend otherwise. In this case, he was sure most of the bridge assumed he’d somehow divined this type of ship with the Force, which suited him.

General Hux was the only one who looked annoyed. Kylo glanced at him quickly, offering his own scowl. Hux would be the only one who knew for certain that Kylo couldn’t do that. It was knowledge Kylo shouldn’t have given him, one of many things he shouldn’t have given Hux. It benefited Kylo too much to have people fear his nebulous, undefined Force powers.

“Confirmed,” one of the officers called up from the pit. “Historical archives suggest a close match to the Nevis Bioplant. Also confirmed, it hasn’t been manufactured in over one thousand years. The ship class is not in the active scan database. The data for the vessel we encountered is a match for a specific model, nearly three thousand years old.”

Kylo turned away from the pit to hide his surprise. Three thousand years? What was such an ancient ship still doing drifting through space? It couldn’t be true. He walked around the holoprojection, studying it carefully.

The Nevis Bioplant. He was no historian, but he knew one particular Nevis Bioplant very well. The age of this ship matched it. The one he knew was rumored to have a modified old-style conning tower, which this one didn’t seem to have, and its bioplants were more pronounced. But…

“Zoom in. Here.” He pointed to an indistinct smudge on the side. The holoprojection was enlarged under his finger, and the smudge grew more distinct. He controlled his expression again, not allowing himself to grin, but the thrill of the discovery made him temporarily forget about the pain of the failed meditation.

“Kittât.”

There was silence, one that Hux broke. “Something you wish to share with the rest of us, Supreme Leader?”

Kylo turned briefly to glare at him. “It’s a language, General. The ship is named in Kittât.”

After a moment, the comm officer spoke up from somewhere to the left, another officer Kylo didn’t know. “Not a recognized language, Supreme Leader. No translation available.”

Kylo huffed. He hadn’t meant for them to translate it. He could read and write it perfectly well, was probably one of the last people in the galaxy who could do so, after his extensive campaigns to eliminate the rest.

“I don’t need a translation. This ship is the _Resolution_.” He allowed himself a smug look, but his face fell when he encountered the still, guarded expressions of all the officers by the viewport.

“And what does that mean, Supreme Leader?” General Hux asked, standing behind the others and taking less care to guard his expression. His tone bordered on insubordinate. Kylo scowled at him again.

“It’s one of the five legendary lost ships. You must recognize it.”

There was silence again, this time broken by Captain Cherry. “Derelicts like this aren’t uncommon in the Unknown Regions and Wild Space, sir. There aren’t… five.”

Kylo clenched his jaw, annoyed that they weren’t more impressed by this. “A three-thousand-year-old shipwreck _isn’t uncommon_.”

Cherry remained silent, her moment of boldness finished, but Hux willingly stepped into the silence again, expression dark. “There have been wars for thousands of years, Supreme Leader. And we aren’t the first to hide here. Shipwrecks are _not uncommon_ , no. Sir.”

Kylo drummed his fingers against his thigh. He shouldn’t allow Hux this kind of defiance in public. If anyone else dared to speak to him like that, he would have torn them apart. Not doing it to Hux set a bad precedent. But that kind of retaliation had lost its appeal when it came to Hux, though it really shouldn’t have.

Kylo shoved the impulse aside. “Thank you for that brief history of galactic warfare. But it’s ridiculous to call a three-thousand-year-old ship - the _Resolution_  - uncommon. Why is it still drifting? Why hasn't it been salvaged?” The First Order had been little more than cockroaches at their outset. They would have done it themselves, starved and desperate for the raw materials. And as Hux said, they were far from the first.

“Well…” Cherry spoke up again, glancing at General Hux for support, who shrugged but remained silent, obviously aware that he’d overstepped. She turned her sleepy expression back to Kylo. “They turn up in remote places. In this case, there aren’t many systems mapped in this area to salvage it to, sir. No place to take it, no place to sell it. And hulks like this are known to be dangerously unstable. Not worth the attempt.”

“Are they also known to pull state-of-the-art Star Destroyers from hyperspace, Captain?”

Cherry held his gaze for a moment, expression blank, the walked past him to another one of the lower stations. “I’ve had Records Officer Denham researching the occurrences of hyperspace disruption in the Order.” She raised her voice, her tone more strained now. “Officer? Has this happened before?”

“No, sir,” a quieter voice answered right away. “There are no documented cases of hyperspace interruption in the First Order for anything larger than a small cargo vessel. That was caused by the Noni Pirate Fleet, seven years ago. Advanced.”

Kylo made a noise. “I don’t care about the history of pirate skirmishes,” he said dismissively.

“Then what do you care about, Supreme Leader?” General Hux asked, his voice cutting across the room. Silence fell as he approached Kylo, his steps echoing against the polished floor of the deck, his hands held behind his back and his shoulders square, his expression severe. He was a picture of confidence, exactly the image the Order wanted for itself. It was why he gave the speeches. He was _presenting_ himself now, and it annoyed Kylo to no end. He stopped several feet in front of Kylo, shoulder not far from the _Resolution_ projection, his expression hard. “Why should we be concerned about the _Resolution_? Supreme Leader. Sir.”

Hux’s words were deferential, but his tone once again bordered on insubordinate, as did the direct challenge. Kylo’s head still ached horribly from the failed meditation, and he shouldn’t have allowed this. Still, he let himself smirk. None of the other officers were willing to be so direct, and Kylo could never resist a challenge.

“I care about a disruption to our schedule, General, and perhaps you should too. This is a very expensive interruption, is it not? And you yourself expressed budget concerns at the last High Command meeting.”

Hux’s courage always held to a point, and Kylo loved pushing past it. This kind of public dressing down would never stop being a pleasure. He stepped into Hux’s personal space, and the General leaned back. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable to Kylo.

“You don’t know about the five legendary lost ships? You must have had a dull childhood.”

Hux was looking more worried now, his glance darting briefly to the side, to where the other group of officers stood to their left. He cleared his throat, and Kylo was disappointed when his voice still came out clearly.

“Captain Cherry. Do you know of these legendary lost ships?”

“Uh. With respect, Supreme Leader. No.”

Kylo huffed through his nose as he watched Hux’s confidence come back, the smug bastard’s posture changing as he gathered more support. “Major? Lieutenant?”

“No, sir.”

"No, sir."

“Maybe you should enlighten us, Supreme Leader? Where _does_  one hear about these legendary lost ships?”

Kylo stood his ground, because anything else would make him look weak. He resisted throwing Hux into the console, which he wished he could still do. The little shit deserved it. He loved rubbing Kylo’s Republican upbringing into his face publicly whenever he could. And he always seemed to know when he could get away with it.

“They are…” Kylo trailed off, scowling and hating Hux more. All five ships were haunted, said to be derelicts drifting forever through the emptiness of space, able to snare passing ships and massacre the crew. Each ship had a different story, of course. He’d loved all of them, listened to his father repeat the stories over and over again and tell obvious lies about finding one or two in his travels. Kylo had obsessively studied the historical builds for each ship and drawn them repeatedly, memorizing their layouts and trying to imagine where the ghosts would hide for maximum effect.

The _Resolution_  was the oldest, and by far the most interesting. It had involved exiled Sith Force users and beheadings, and thus had been his favorite. His first foray into the Sith Kittât language had been learning the strokes of the _Resolution_ ’s name.

Kylo cleared his throat. _The Sith_. That was what he could fall back on, now that Hux had pressed him publicly about the story. He allowed himself a smirk, and watched Hux’s expression fall, sensing the defeat. “This ship is one of the last artifacts of the old Sith Empire, said to have been a holdout from a fleeing remnant of the race attempting to re-establish itself.” He took a step back from Hux and his eyes moved from Hux to the other officers on the deck, trying to impress the significance of the ship on those around him. Everyone but Hux had the grace to look down.

He realized this also gave him carte blanche to explore the ship, one of his longtime childhood fantasies, without having to explain himself. They would assume it was Force business, and not question it. “We will take parties onboard to explore the ship and recover any Sith artifacts. I also want a team of techs to investigate why the ship might have pulled the _Finalizer_  from hyperspace.”

The officers on deck blinked at him in incomprehension. It was Cherry who broke the silence. “Of course, Supreme Leader. We can do that. But a wreck that old… it’s very likely to have been looted. We won’t find anything aboard to remove.”

Kylo tipped his head forward in acknowledgment. Had it been Hux, he would have offered more sarcasm. But the concern was valid, so he made up a vaguely plausible story that Cherry and the others would believe. “Sith artifacts are dangerous, and would have the power to hide from or deter casual looters. Unless the ship has been explored by Force users, there are probably still some aboard. I need them.”

There wasn't anything particularly secretive about any of the artifacts that Kylo had seen in his life. The Sith Empire was a backstabbing mess, and hiding something with the Force from another powerful Force user was pointless. They were much more likely to be physically hidden. This probably qualified as a hiding place, but Cherry was likely right about the ship being empty. Kylo wasn't actually interested in ancient Force artifacts, so whether they were there or not was inconsequential. He simply wanted to board the ship.

Once again, the Officers around him were silenced, their expressions a careful neutral. And once again, Hux was the one to break the silence, to ask the question no one else wanted to.

“That ship didn’t pull the _Finalizer_  from hyperspace. It’s impossible. Interdictor technology is too new. The techs are a waste of time and resources.”

Kylo raised his brows. Pulling ships from hyperspace was exactly what the legendary shipwrecks were rumored to do. But he wasn’t about to admit, to either the entire bridge crew or to Armitage Fucking Hux, that this ship was supposed to be haunted.

“The ship was pulled from hyperspace with dead engine systems. We verified how unprecedented that is. If you have another explanation, or a solution, share it. General.”

Hux, of course, did not, but Kylo was rewarded with a sullen look. Cherry cleared her throat. “Is… that an order, sir? For the techs to board the derelict ship?”

Kylo turned from Hux, crossing his arms and turning to face Cherry. “What was unclear, Captain?”

It was unlike Cherry to second-guess an order, and this entire conversation had gone on too long. There was something about this that Kylo didn’t understand, some reason they were hesitant to do this, and the gaps in his knowledge, the experiences he did not share with the rest of the First Order, always set his temper on edge. His earlier pain surged back and his expression darkened as the silence carried.

The Captain glanced down into the pits again, obviously trying to frame a response. “Major Denham?”

“The, ah. Sir. Supreme Leader.” Denham clearly did not want to deliver the news of whatever he was about to say. It only made Kylo angrier. Denham was right to be afraid. To his credit, Denham stood, posture correct and hands behind his back. As far as Kylo could tell, he had dark hair and shockingly handsome features, but attractive faces were only frustrating when every damn centimeter of the officers was covered, save for those blank expressions.

“The hulks are dangerous. Sir. Unstable, as Captain Cherry said. And. Ah, you mentioned, sir, that yes, we’ve been. Patrolling the Unknown Regions for years, and have attempted to salvage ships. They were newer than this one, you said earlier, this one is, ah, unique. It’s difficult-”

“It’s a death trap,” Hux snapped, obviously much less concerned about delivering bad news. Kylo spun to face him again. He was angry enough to have been enjoying the cringing deference given to him by Denham, and his gaze locked on Hux, wanting the same and anticipating what would happen when Hux inevitably didn't give it.

“They explode. They’re eaten away by mynocks, and stars know what else. They’re missing sections, and do you _really_  think there’s anything there to see, Supreme Leader? We are certainly not the only ones who have tried to enter it in the past millennia. Even your Sith artifacts are unlikely to have survived vacuum, extreme temperatures, radiation, and the ravages of time. Certainly the enemies who destroyed the ship would have been Force-sensitive, and stole any valuable artifacts almost immediately.”

Hux smiled, as he did when he thought he’d done something devastating. Kylo warred with himself once again. He should kill Hux. He would kill someone else who’d said that in front of the entire fucking crew. Was Hux stupid? His hands twitched at his side, and he stepped forward again, into Hux’s space.

He couldn’t do it, and hated himself. It was another thing Hux had taken from him. He turned his head to the side briefly, then looked back to Hux.

“The fate of the _Resolution_  is well known. There was no attack, no final battle. Their enemy was only themselves, General. Their factions overthrew each other until there was nothing left.” He huffed and stepped back, smirking again as he gave a long, considered stare in Cherry’s direction, then looked back to Hux.

Hux was a terrible gossip when he heard something that annoyed him. Allegedly, Cherry hated Hux passionately, and had been working diligently with High Command to remove him from her ship. Unsuccessfully, of course. Hux was too well-connected, too powerful for someone of Cherry’s rank to take down. Kylo always found the petty First Order infighting entertaining, and indulged Hux in his angry ranting. But he also immensely enjoyed the power struggle between the two, now that he knew what to look for.

Kylo continued, making his point again to Hux and everyone else. “Do I think anyone else has boarded a three-thousand-year-old ship cursed by the fallen Sith Empire and its most bitter, devout Force users? No, General. But I want their history, and I will have it.”

It was a pretty speech, and he was proud of it. He pushed past Hux, jostling him on the way, not caring what his reaction was. “Captain. Make it happen. How soon can we go aboard?”

Cherry glanced down into the lower stations again, then back to Kylo. “Well, sir, our engines are still out-”

Kylo waved a hand. “The transports. I’m sure the transports will work.” He paused. “Work under the assumption that there is a primitive interdictor on board. We may be able to get the smaller transports working long enough to gain the momentum to reach the _Resolution_. Would we be able to deactivate or separate that kind of interdictor technology and take it with us?”

Cherry raised her eyebrows, her expression momentary losing its look of sleepy complacency. “Well, sir. That is, ah. If you say so. But we won’t know if we can recover an interdictor until we know… if there is one. And how it works, and how large it is. We can prepare a transport. Send over some techs, to see if we can… ah. Find this interdictor.”

Kylo waved her away impatiently. “We will.”

Cherry turned, tapping on a console. “A transport with techs can be ready in less than ten minutes. All crew boarding the vessel will need to be outfitted with full atmo suits and mag-boots, since we will assume all life support systems will be non-functional. We will send crews specializing in external tech and engine repairs.” She turned, her expression once again neutral and guarded. “You mentioned that Force users would be the only ones who could sense the… artifacts that you are expecting. I assume that means you’ll be boarding the ship as well?”

“Yes,” Kylo gestured impatiently. That was the _point_  of all this, after all.

Cherry nodded, turning back to the console. “Recommending a second transport then, Supreme Leader, with yourself and a platoon of Stormtroopers to assist your search. Troopers will take longer to mobilize and equip, but that transport can be ready in… one hour.” She paused. “Unless they won’t, ah. Be able to see what you're looking for.”

Kylo ignored her obvious skepticism. “That will work.” He turned. “General. Give the order to prepare the Troopers.”

Hux frowned, but nodded. He’d already overstepped today, and wouldn’t again. “As you wish, Supreme Leader.”

Kylo tipped his head, resisting the urge to rub at the base of his neck where the pain of a headache was still throbbing. But he straightened abruptly, struck by sudden inspiration.

“You’ll come aboard with me, of course. General.”

Hux’s jaw flexed, and Kylo could tell he wanted to protest. “Supreme Leader. I am not suited to this type of… exploration. Nor do I have any of the zero-atmo equipment fitted to me.”

“No?” Revenge was sweet, and Kylo was just warming up. “The head of the army does not possess a fitted set of Stormtrooper armor?”

To Hux’s credit, he didn’t react. They both knew kriffing well he did. Kylo had commissioned one himself, after Hux had agreed to let Kylo fuck him in it. That had been one of the best decisions in Kylo’s career as Supreme Leader thus far. The memory of Hux’s panting through the helmet’s vocoder made Kylo’s dick twitch in his pants.

“Yes. I. Just remembered. I do.” Hux bowed stiffly. “As you wish, Supreme Leader.”

Hux turned and walked out of the comm area as if the conversation hadn’t affected him at all. Kylo’s eyes followed his back through his unhurried, businesslike retreat.

Hux hadn’t followed the dismissal protocol. The _niceties_. Kylo could call him back, discipline him in front of the others for not following the proper etiquette, the same that the General was usually such a stickler for.

It would make Hux angry, humiliate him in front of the entire bridge crew. But truthfully, it was a petty exercise of Kylo’s power, and very much beneath him.

There’d be plenty of time for Hux and his little suit of armor later.

 

* * *

 

 

An hour later, Kylo strode into Aft Hangar A, far more annoyed than he should have been. His steps were heavier and more plodding than usual. A uniform technician had modified a pair of his boots with the magtech to enter the derelict ship, and though the boots weren’t currently active, they were still heavier than usual.

He was in a bad mood despite the discovery and imminent exploration of the _Resolution_. He knew he shouldn’t enter a former Sith stronghold with unsettled thoughts, but he found himself unable to achieve even a light meditation to aid his awareness. His sense of the Force was still numb and painful from his earlier failed effort, and he was angry at himself for not having any control of that, even after all the years of practice and training.

He'd always blamed Snoke and Luke for his shortcomings. He'd always felt that any criticism from his former masters was unfair, and reflected their own failures. After all, if they had been better teachers, wouldn’t he have been a better student? But now that both were gone, he found his lack of control an ugly reality,one he hated dealing with.

As he approached the transport, he focused on a simpler thing to be angry about - the loss of his boots. There hadn’t been any standard-issue pilot or Trooper gear of the correct size on hand, so he’d needed to sacrifice a pair of his own boots. He _liked_  his boots, and would probably never use them again.

The rest of his atmo suit was his own fitted TIE gear, rarely used, complete with the black helmet and the hoses that fed into the cumbersome control panel strapped to his chest. He could salvage the boots by keeping them with the TIE gear and wearing both more often. But it just wasn't the same.

There was a platoon of Stormtroopers standing by, awaiting orders to board the transport. Hux was immediately recognizable in his own white armor, even without the HUD information that ghosted over his silhouette inside Kylo’s helmet. Hux was much taller than almost all the standard troopers, standing apart from the neat ranks of the others, bent over a datapad and wearing his greatcoat over the armor.

The latter was ridiculous enough to make Kylo smile, free and hidden behind his own helmet. Hux’s narcissism was always amusing, and of course Hux would believe he needed to stand out and show off his rank, even while outfitted as a trooper. As Kylo approached, he also noticed that Hux was very clumsy with the datapad while wearing his armored gloves, but that was obviously another concession he had been unwilling to make.

Kylo began to feel the tendrils of Hux’s nervous energy wrap around his awareness. It was a good sign, in terms of his numbed Force powers, but it was always easy to tell what Hux was feeling at any given time. Hux’s emotional range was limited, to say the least. Kylo still sensed nothing from the Stormtroopers, but he didn’t really care what they were feeling. He didn't want to test his limits on something so wasteful.

He frowned as he came to a heavily-booted stop next to Hux. Why was Hux nervous? He was usually only annoyed when Kylo forced him to do something that he thought was a waste of time. Hux also wasn’t the type to care about the safety issues onboard the derelict ship. Hux was rarely  _nervous_. In fact, the only time Hux was ever nervous was when he made himself vulnerable, which was almost never. It definitely wasn't now.

Kylo wondered if Hux was nervous about wearing his Stormtrooper armor in public. They had made rather thorough use of it on several occasions. And it was _hot_. Last time they’d used it, Hux had been the one to ask for it, so he knew Hux liked it too. Maybe Hux was just remembering that.

Kylo smirked in his helmet, once again pleased to have his expression hidden. Hux awkwardly dismissed a report, then turned to Kylo, his nervousness dissipating completely as he stowed his datapad and tapped the side of his helmet to engage his comm.

That was even stranger.

“Nice cape,” Hux remarked on a private channel, in lieu of any sort of official greeting. Kylo was disappointed that his voice sounded very normal over the comm, and lacked the breathy quality that he enjoyed so much from the Stormtrooper helmet.

Kylo shrugged in response. He liked the cape. He knew it looked good on him, even in the armor. “Yeah, I know.”

Hux tilted his helmet slightly, his expression hidden as he took a moment to reply. “You should be thrilled about this little private party. Why are you already angry?”

Kylo’s eyes widened in surprise. “What makes you think I’m angry?”

Hux made a derisive noise into the comm. “It’s not as if you bother to hide it.”

“I didn’t say anything! And you can’t even see my face. How can you tell?” Kylo could hear himself getting defensive, and he forced himself to calm down, to pretend that Hux hadn’t gotten under his skin in four sentences.

Hux put a hand out, palm up, and made a see-sawing motion. “Your walk. Your shoulders are tense. You’re looming.”

“I am not _looming_.”

“Right.”

The sight of Hux in his sexy armor had taken the edge off Kylo's mood, but Hux's too-astute observations brought it all back, along with his headache. Of course. Because Hux could do that.

It should be nothing. All of this should be nothing. He shouldn’t let Hux talk to him like this. He shouldn’t let Hux have this much control over his emotions, the good or the bad. Hux also shouldn’t be able to read his fucking _body language_  through a layer of armor and atmo gear. It was yet another thing he’d given Hux that he shouldn’t have, and it made him wary.

He had Hux _under control_. Right where he wanted him. Things like Hux's ability to _see_ him made him uneasy. It made him think about how he didn't have a lot of control with his Force abilities, either. Except there wasn’t a way to blame Luke or Snoke for the way he handled Hux. Not really.

Hux had approached him within days of Snoke’s death with the rather blunt offer to suck Kylo’s cock in exchange for what Hux called _favors._ At the time, Kylo had seen it as a thinly-veiled attempt by Hux to keep his job, or his life, or both. They had not exactly been in accord on the _Supremacy_ , or Crait, and Kylo had been expecting some sort of power play from him. Possibly in the form of his little pet assassin Opan. But not a sexual power play.

Kylo had agreed, thinking that Hux would try to kill him with that little knife that he thought was a secret, and Kylo would finally have a good reason to end their game.

But Hux didn’t try that first time, or any time after that. When an assassination attempt failed to materialize, Kylo began to suspect that maybe sex was some power thing among the officers of the First Order. He knew they were all disgustingly and blindly ambitious. He’d expected to be pandered to and asked for favors, but hadn't expected to be plied sexually. He wondered how many more would make such offers. Snoke had always said that Hux was the most nakedly ambitious and ruthless of the little First Order officer hierarchy, and Kylo had found that to be the case. The sex had only confirmed it.

But Hux had been the only one to approach him. Not just for sex, but to ask him for anything at all. It had begun to make him uneasy. He tried to remember if Snoke had also been unapproachable, but Kylo hadn’t been paying enough attention to the other officers to know. He’d only ever worked with Hux.

Hux was still waiting on his promotion to Grand Marshall, of course, because Kylo wasn’t stupid. Meanwhile, he was giving blowjobs like a champ, among other things. Bizarrely, their little sessions were never followed by any sort of tangible request. Hux continued to seek the same types of authorizations and confirmations he’d taken from Snoke, via the same types of meetings and comms he always had - small, inconsequential things that Kylo freely granted or denied, depending on his mood for the day.

All of it was probably some complicated scheme from Hux. Kylo was wary, but had decided to enjoy himself in the meantime.

In the hangar, Hux gave a little twitch of his shoulders and turned abruptly on his heel. He was upset, presumably because Kylo wasn’t _sharing his feelings_  with him. Kylo could tell, even without reading Hux’s emotions. Worse and worse. He shouldn’t be able to read Hux through a layer of armor either, unless he was denying him an orgasm. He shouldn’t care that Hux was upset with him. He should, in fact, want it. It kept Hux at a distance.

Hux switched to a public comm to order the Troopers aboard the transport, and the two of them stomped up the ramp behind them. They sat next to each other at the head of the carrier area, side-by-side on the bench that faced the rows of Troopers standing at attention.

Kylo didn’t have anything better to do than watch Hux out of the corner of his eye. Hux was attempting the datapad again, but as Kylo watched, he only angrily scrolled through the same report over and over again, probably trying to look busy. And unfortunately, the Stormtrooper armor was more distracting than Kylo had intended. When he tried to guess what expression Hux was making while fake-working, he could only picture Hux’s face after he’d removed it the last time - Kylo had left it on until after Hux had come, and when he removed it, Hux’s face had been flushed and sweaty, his hair disheveled. He’d been absolutely wrecked, and it had been like unwrapping a present.

Kylo’s breathing became heavier, and the damn TIE equipment was different than his old helmet. The inside quickly fogged and grew humid, despite the elaborate breathing apparatus attached to it. Annoying.

Kylo fidgeted on the bench and tapped the side of his helmet, opening the private comm channel again and choosing not to think about what he was doing.

“I was meditating earlier, when we were in hyperspace. The drop… cut me off. Severing the connection was painful. Still is.”  He paused, unsure how to describe the feeling. "It's like having the tips of my fingers cut off. It hurts, and I can't feel anything anymore." He winced. Hux didn't need to know that last part, it was too much.

Hux’s helmet turned toward him, considering. Luckily, he was more interested in the first part of what Kylo had said. “You told me you couldn’t meditate deeply like that. Do you still bother to do it?”

Kylo jerked his head around to face Hux’s blank, expressionless helmet, extending his senses briefly to see if Hux had tried to insult him. He hadn’t. Hux was genuinely surprised that Kylo had been meditating. Hux was thinking nebulously about Snoke, and Kylo remembered that Snoke had criticized him for his poor meditation in front of Hux. More than once, probably.

Kylo faced forward again. _Fantastic_. More of his limits that Hux shouldn’t know. And yet, Kylo found himself giving an honest answer. Bored, he told himself.

“Yeah, well. I’ve never been good at it. I thought it would be easier once Snoke was dead. But the kind of… meditation I was engaged in earlier. I can’t do it very often. So.”

Hux made a noise of acknowledgment and paused for a moment. But rather than continuing the conversation, he bent back over his datapad. It was probably a relief to both of them. Kylo settled back, still troubled by Hux’s offhand personal comments, his responses, and the stars-damned armor.

Kylo had been surprised when his relationship with Hux hadn’t changed after the death of the Supreme Leader, or even after they’d started having sex. He’d been so sure that Hux would try to kill, usurp, or otherwise use his position to undermine Kylo. But either Hux was playing a long game, or thought that staying close to the Supreme Leader however possible was necessary.

Hux’s insistence on prostrating himself before Snoke’s every whim had always puzzled Kylo. Hux hadn’t needed to, his skills spoke well enough for him. Snoke had never rewarded him for his kowtowing, not really. And Kylo couldn’t believe anyone would get close to Snoke if they didn’t have to. Snoke had always believed that Hux was _useful_ , but maybe Hux’s strategy had been a good one. He was, after all, the one that the Supreme Leader used the most.

Which was still the case. But not for the same reasons. Kylo had asked once, after a particularly blistering round of sex, if Hux had slept with Snoke, too. Hux hadn’t spoken to him for a week after that.

Truthfully, Kylo’s relationship with the First Order hadn’t changed at all once he took over. Officers and troopers still avoided him. No one spoke to him if they didn’t have to. Everyone quietly tried to humor him and keep their distance. When Kylo said anything about the Force, they assumed the blank looks of people who wanted to disappear.

Hux’s insubordination, open challenges, conversation, and arguments were a relief in comparison. All of it should have made Kylo angrier than it did. And sometimes, it made him _too_  angry when it really shouldn’t. But he still let Hux get away with it.

When the transport docked with the _Resolution_ , Hux ordered all the troopers off the ship and into the eerily dark and empty hangar bay of the Nevis Bioplant. The small sounds of the ship settling and the Troopers falling into ranks echoed dully through the giant chamber. The lights from the transport were only bright enough to illuminate a small section of the bay, where racks of antiquated docks for small short-range transports stood twisted and empty.

Kylo listened to Hux give orders, dividing the platoon into four individual units and outlining specifics about comms and map data.  He waited until Hux was nearly finished, then interrupted him.

“Hold,” Kylo broke in over the public comm, cutting Hux off mid-sentence. He paused for a moment, letting his finger hover over his helmet’s comm controls as Hux spun around. Kylo grinned - Hux was broadcasting obvious irritation, even through the awkwardness of his armor and the now-engaged magboots. He debated chastising Hux publicly, then decided that undermining Hux in front of a platoon of Stormtroopers was a wasted effort. He could do better later.

“You gave the order for the units to be led by ourselves and the two captains.”

“Thank you for the review, Supreme Leader. Was there anything else in my orders that you wanted to repeat back to me?”

Kylo ignored Hux’s irritation. “You and I are traveling together. Alone. Send the units out as-is.”

Hux looked over the units, then back to Kylo. “We’re using standard procedure for exploration of unknown territory.”

“So?”

“It’s _safer_. This could be dangerous-”

“Do you really think there’s something on this ship that could kill me?”

He could sense Hux’s growing anger without trying, even through his numb and painful sense of the Force. Kylo was impressed that Hux was managing to keep most of the fury out of his voice.

“No, _Supreme Leader_ -”

Kylo smirked. He loved it when he got the sarcastic title from Hux.

“-but we have standard procedures for a reason. There are a number of dangers during reconnaissance missions like this. And the techs reported back that this ship was presenting comm transmission difficulties, so we will need to explore in an organized manner that keeps a relay active-”

“What?”

Hux’s mask crackled. Kylo wished he could see his face. “You were not listening to my briefing.”

“Of course not. What about the comms?”

“The walls are made from ferrocompounds that block modern short range comm transmissions. The reconnaissance parties need to stay in proximity for relay, and that’s easier to manage if each party has a commander to direct the search.”

“I trust your Troopers not to get lost on an empty ship.” Kylo gestured impatiently. “Give the order. You and I are exploring together.”

Hux paused for a moment, but eventually turned back to the Troopers and did as Kylo asked. Accordingly, the units dispersed, and he and Hux made their way down a central passage that seemed to angle up to the top forward section of the ship.

Hux was pouting, and still nervous about something, so Kylo kept his comments to himself as they trudged through the ship, fighting gravity and their mag-boots. Hux took the lead, carrying a light cylinder from the standard issue trooper kits to dispel the complete darkness of the inner ship, but the hallway they were using was monumental - almost a waste of space. The ceiling vaulted up just past the limit of the light, embellished with a series of oddly delicate forms ribbing the walls that arched up into the high darkness. Their heavy footsteps echoed monstrously in the stillness. The color on everything had eroded into irregular smears of dark red and white, interrupted with metallic black and silver flecks. Kylo couldn’t tell whether the coloration was original or the result of some aging process.

Kylo endured several minutes of tromping through the otherwise featureless hallways before breaking the silence between them. “Even without being scrapped, how is a ship so old intact at all? Shouldn’t it have disintegrated a long time ago?”

“What makes you think this is the original? Or really that old?”

Hux’s tone was mocking, but Kylo answered the question earnestly. “Why would someone make a replica?”

“Why does anyone do anything? We have replica Star Destroyers. Perhaps it was some later cultural revival.”

“No, but. That’s exactly what this ship is. The design was from a much earlier model. The legend says that they recreated it, and hosted a revival of the Sith Empire. But there were rival factions, and infighting. Allegedly, the last Emperor went mad with power and executed everyone on board by beheading them.”

Hux was silent for a moment, considering this. “If they were all dead, how did the legend spread?”

Kylo snorted derisively to hide his annoyance. Trust Hux to ask something irrelevant like that. Anyway. Kylo knew now that the legend was true, and that this was the same ship. He sensed… something. Something vague, pulling on his numbed awareness. There was nothing distinct, but it felt neither Light nor Dark, just… an existence in the Force.

Odd. For a Sith ship.  But when Kylo tried to investigate, it was as if he was slamming into a wall around him. He glanced around, but could find no obvious cause. Even diminished, he knew it was some barrier against the Force. He'd heard of such things, but didn't think they were real. Trust the Sith to have a whole ship made out of it.

When Kylo didn’t respond, Hux continued with an answer to Kylo’s earlier question, because Hux loved to hear himself talk. “There’s nothing in space that truly destroys a ship aside from scavenging. Not the kind of things that you see planetside, and especially not once the life support systems go. The types of microorganisms that usually break down materials don’t typically exist outside an atmosphere. There are mynocs and a few other species that will eat certain minerals, but they aren’t in all areas of space. So. Yes, it’s not uncommon to find a drifting ship like this.”

This sounded like something Hux had made up, but Kylo didn’t know enough to question him. Instead, he latched onto his last comment.

“You’ve found ships like this before?” The question had come out more eagerly than he’d intended, so Kylo slowed his steps to annoy Hux and make up for it.

“Yes, though not one this old. I’ve seen one that we estimated at four hundred years, though.”

“Was it whole?”

“Intact enough to be a smuggler enclave. More exciting than an empty derelict haunted by vengeful decapitated ghosts, I’m sure.”

Hux glanced awkwardly over to see his reaction. Kylo hadn’t mentioned the haunting legends, and wasn’t sure if Hux was making fun of the Force, of Kylo’s tastes in particular, or was just reveling in the sound of his own voice. Kylo rolled his shoulders, dismissing the comment, though he would freely admit that hunting smugglers through a derelict ship would also be an acceptable afternoon, especially without comms and with his Force senses deadened.

The ship was much smaller than the _Finalizer_ , meant to hold less than 3,000 individuals, crew and staff included. It was too small for an internal transport system, but it still took almost an hour to follow the main central chamber to the front of the ship. It was a very dull walk, and the hallway stayed uniformly dark and overly large as they moved through it. Kylo stayed in the main hall mostly to annoy Hux, who grew increasingly frustrated as Kylo turned down his suggestions to investigate side hallways and adjacent chambers. He wondered why Hux was giving him the opportunity to say no so easily.

The comm signals and mapping data became intermittent, then cut out completely after thirty minutes. Once the comms were gone, all that remained were the sound of their boots on the deck, an occasional groan in the structure of the ship, and the vague _pulling_  sensation against Kylo’s awareness that wouldn’t go away. There were no ghosts, and no pirates. There was absolutely nothing.

Eventually, the central passage terminated in an enormous set of segmented rolling doors. It was an ancient style that opened vertically, collapsing on itself and disappearing into a cylindrical chamber. The doors were pressure locked and powerless, and appeared to be a dead end. He waited until Hux started speaking, suggesting some other place to go, then he used the Force to push the door open.

Hux gave an annoyed huff, then ducked underneath the door and entered the chamber beyond.

It was one of the enormous bioplants, the outdated life support systems for which the ship model had earned its name. There were three total, all had been clearly visible from the hull of the ship as they approached. They were as tall as the ship itself, stretching up the height of all the decks.

It was difficult to tell how it had once been used, though Kylo knew that, in theory, it had been meant to work together with the atmo controllers to purify the air and water and provide a place to cultivate food and keep anything harvested for protein. The chamber had been enclosed in a dome of transparisteel that was now completely missing, lost at some point over the centuries. The entire area was now open to space, lit starkly by starlight and extremely visible after the darkness of the interior. Several of the terraced decks in the bioplant had caved in or were missing, and all that was left were the twisted remnants of paths, planters, gates, and the elaborate network of piping that had once sustained everything. To his left, he could see faint black outlines of plant matter along a low wall that may have once been a planting box. Elsewhere, support pillars bore the barest hints of the outlines of branches and leaves.

The space was both awesome and humbling, recognizable and not. A shattered remnant of what had once been a beautiful and life-sustaining part of the ship.

Kylo laid a hand against a thick pipe segment to steady himself, though the gesture was pointless. He hated the sensation of being out in space, with no walls or gravity to hold and keep him, and the effect was amplified by the Force. The sensation hit him suddenly, after the relatively Force-deadened areas inside the ship. It was dizzying, and with nothing between himself and dead space aside from an atmo suit, the pull of the living Force was nearly unbearable. There was simultaneously too much and not enough for the Force to act on, and no sense of physical space to anchor himself to. He’d always imagined it was what dying and becoming One with the Force felt like.

When he’d been eight, he’d argued with Luke about it, insisting that barriers like atmosphere and ships were nothing to the Force. Kylo could feel the truth of it, and had thought Luke was lying to him about the power of open space. The next time they’d left Chandrila, Luke had sent him outside the ship in an atmo suit. Kylo had lasted fifteen minutes before he’d finally commed Luke, crying and begging to come in before he died.

Kylo scowled at his hand on the pipe. This was the first time he’d been out in open space since then. He forced himself to focus, and reminded himself he wasn’t a frightened boy anymore. He let the Force wash over and through him as he did during meditation. It hurt, and he sucked in a sharp breath as the pain of his failed meditation washed over him again, but it leveled out in moments, and both the pain and the wave of force were bearable.

Steadied, he turned to Hux, who was once again paging clumsily through his datapad, head down and infuriatingly oblivious to both the monumental wreck of the chamber and the pull of the Force in open space. After a moment, Hux’s white helmet tipped up briefly in recognition, then back down.

“Since this area’s open to space, it’s free of the comm interference we experience in the rest of the ship. I’m sending our map data to the others, and to the _Finalizer_.”

“Any news from the other groups?”

“Nothing significant. No changes aboard the _Finalizer_ , engines still inoperable. Some partial mapping data from around the hangar bay. Map data from the techs that leads to the engineering bay. They are still investigating the source of the interdiction. They report that the engine and power systems are entirely unlike modern systems, and their work is progressing slowly. All the mechanisms are completely dead and locked, but they are attempting to restore power. That was over thirty minutes ago.” He slid the datapad back inside his greatcoat. “Any headless Sith prowling around?”

Kylo huffed, looking up to the _Finalizer_ , visible on the port side of the ship. Even at a distance, the enormous vessel dominated the sky. “No. But we can keep looking if the _Finalizer_ ’s engines are still stalled.”

“Good.  Prowling around a dangerous shipwreck is exactly how I wanted to spend my shift. It’s not as if I’m running an entire army and have anything better to do, Ren.”

Kylo pursed his lips. He liked hearing his former title from Hux, more than he ought. He preferred his first name, though Hux only ever used it when he was shouting it in bed.

“You can help me carry back the Sith holocrons I’m looking for. I want to find one of their archives.” Kylo glanced around the bioplant again, his hand still against the pipe. It felt significant, somehow. But whatever had been here was no longer. He turned back to the entrance and made his slow, heavy-booted way back into the main hall.

Hux made a dismissive noise behind him. “Don’t use that ‘Sith Holocron’ excuse on me. You told me all that was bantha shit, and you were done with it after Snoke. You aren’t looking for Sith Holocrons.”

“ _General_ ,” Kylo said, pitching his voice low in a warning. He didn’t want to be reminded he’d shared that part of himself with Hux. “If I say I’m looking for holocrons, I’m looking for holocrons. Maybe I changed my mind.”

“Then you can use a bin to carry your holocrons. A bin cannot replace my duties in the training program.”

“No, but Captain Hatlin can. Keep complaining.”

Hux was silent after that, though Kylo couldn’t get a good sense of whether he was annoyed or believed that Kylo was making a serious threat. The First Order infighting was extremely earnest. Kylo hadn’t realized how serious the Officers were about ousting each other until he’d become Supreme Leader. Hux kept him apprised of the most interesting bits of the little cutthroat pissing contests. Kylo’s threat was an empty one, as he didn’t care to replace Hux with anyone right now, but it was still good to keep Hux wary. He was more interesting that way.

The two of them threaded their way silently through the network of halls, with Kylo leading the way now. Ten minutes after leaving the bioplant, Kylo was hopelessly lost - without a datapad, and with his sense of the Force deadened, he had to rely on his natural sense of direction, which was quite poor.

It didn’t matter, per se, but he still didn’t want Hux to know.

“Any further reports?” he asked, after realizing he would need to rely on Hux, or the mapping data he was likely collecting in his datapad, to reach the main hallway again.

“No,” Hux replied, lowering the light cylinder slightly as he reached into his greatcoat and fumbled one-handed with the datapad. “We received a relay from another party about ten minutes ago, but no further comms from engineering, and none of the parties have yet reported locating-”

As they began to round the next corner, Kylo impulsively grabbed Hux’s shoulder and yanked him backwards. It took his thoughts a moment to catch up to the impulse, long enough to realize that Hux’s mag-boots made the grab an awkward, painful one for the General.

Stepping past Hux and his shouted protests, Kylo had only a moment to put his hand up before three blaster shots were fired from around the corner. He barely had time to stop them before they landed. They froze in midair, one hovering just in front of his stomach.

The effort was monumental, with his Force powers so stretched and stressed. Whatever was in the ship was still blocking him from sensing whoever these three were - visible around the corner now, they wore nondescript lightweight gray armor, their face shields dark. They carried no lights, and their boots were making no sound on the deck plating.

The effort of holding the shots in midair reverberated through his nerves, and he inhaled and exhaled sharply three times to try and manage his pain. The three gray-suited strangers stared at him, weapons drawn. Kylo had only a moment to marvel at how he would never get tired of surprising people with the blaster shot trick before two things happened: the three raised their blasters again, and Hux shouted an order behind him.

“Send the shots back! What are you waiting for?”

Kylo’s vision darkened as he brought up his other hand to deflect the next round of shots. Deflection was easier, and the shots pinged as the walls absorbed them. With a grunt, he sent the frozen shots back into the strangers, closing his eyes and mustering enough concentration to aim for their necks, where armor joints were usually weakest.

It worked, and Kylo bent over double, gasping for breath as the three slumped, weightless and held suspended from the deck plating by their boots and the lack of gravity. Their lifelessness looked eerie.

Kylo straightened, but had no chance to muster his thoughts before Hux began admonishing him, his voice sharp and angry. “What good are your powers if they can’t stop us from being killed in a derelict shipwreck?”

“I told you, I was-” Kylo shook his head. He hated admitting weakness aloud, and he wouldn’t explain himself to Hux. “The ship is a Sith vessel. It’s not as easy to sense life forms here.”

“We might as well have run ourselves onto their monomolecular blades! They very nearly didn’t even need to shoot us.”

“Silence,” Kylo snapped, still trying to recover himself. He was dizzy, and having difficulty absorbing what had just happened. After a moment, he realized he could just ask. He waved at the bodies. “Figure out who they were.”

Hux paused for only a moment, obviously unable to resist his usual sarcastic retort. “Do you want me to do that, or remain silent?”

” _General_.”

“I don’t know how you expect me to learn anything from dead bodies in zero atmosphere. They’re likely smugglers. You killed them, so we can’t ask them. What else do you need to know?”

“I don’t know, their species?” Kylo straightened, allowing himself to gather his temper. Anger helped him draw on the Force, and it settled his thoughts, made the waves of pain recede. “None of the other parties have encountered strangers?”

“Not on any of the reports I’d read.” He handed Ren the light cylinder, then began typing on his datapad again. “We’re out of comm range again, no further updates.”

“Get back in comm range, then!” Kylo stepped closer to the drifting bodies, locked by their feet to the deck. He could sense faintly that one of them was still alive, but probably not for long. “We need to send out a warning, and send over more Troopers.”

“More Troopers? Why? So we can waste even more time and resources flushing out some poor smuggler nest on a forgotten shipwreck?”

Kylo thinned his lips. Hux wasn’t wrong. Still. Something about tracking smugglers aboard the allegedly haunted wreck of the _Resolution_  sent a thrill through Kylo. Suddenly, nothing else would do. “Yes. I want to find them.”

Hux waved a hand. “Then go find them. I’m done with this little scavenger hunt. I’m turning on my infrared so I can’t be ambushed, and I’m going back to that open chamber we were in before. I’m sending an update to the _Finalizer_  and the parties aboard the ship to be aware of smugglers, and ordering them shoot on sight. I’m ordering more Troopers aboard, and I’m having them start by locating the hidden smuggler vessel in the hangar bay so we can attempt to learn basics about them.” Hux made a derisive noise. “Does that meet with your approval, _Supreme Leader_?”

Kylo smiled thinly. He also loved the way Hux said _Supreme Leader_. Always with barely restrained disgust. “No. We shouldn’t split up.”

Hux made an exasperated noise. “You told me to get back in comm range!”

“I changed my mind.”

“Then _come with me._  What else is there to do?”

“Hunt.” Kylo licked his lips. A blind hunt through a labyrinth in an atmo suit, with no gravity, no command of the Force, and an enemy that could turn a corner at any time, it was… _exciting_. It was exactly what he wanted from the shipwreck. The empty high-vaulted dark hallways were disappointing, and all the rooms they’d looked in were completely bare. It was obvious the ship had been thoroughly looted at some point over the past millennia. And it wasn’t haunted, he knew that. He wasn’t looking for ghosts, exactly, just… something. This challenge would do. It was exactly what he wanted.

“By yourself?”

“No, you’re coming with me.”

“What about the comms? And backup? We desperately need communication, and I don’t know when we’ll be back within range of one of the other parties!”

“I don’t want to go back the way we came. We already know that area is clear.”

Hux straightened, and his annoyance was strong enough that Kylo could sense it. “Then give orders, Supreme Leader. What’s the priority? Your hunt, or informing the other parties of danger and requesting backup?”

Kylo’s jaw tightened, and his stomach flipped. “I don’t want you to go off by yourself.”

It was out before he could think about it. It shocked both of them. Hux managed a weak “What?” before Kylo recovered.

“You have no practical battle experience, and you’ll be torn limb from limb. Do you even know how to use your infrared equipment?”

“I wrote the simulations for it,” Hux snapped. “And I’m the head of the army. I don’t need you coddling me.”

“And I don’t need a dead general. Are you armed?”

Hux wasn’t. He hesitated a moment before straightening and hiding the fact behind obstinance.

“ _Orders_ , Supreme Leader.”

Kylo tensed, still angry. Hux had a point. They needed to send the comms. And Kylo knew that the way back to the bioplant was clear. Hux was in no danger.

And even if he was, Kylo didn’t… he didn’t _care_. There were at least ten other officers in line to replace him. Captain Hatlin. Kylo could promote him. He’d said as much earlier.

He waved his hand dismissively. “Send your comms, General. Find me later.”

Hux made a derisive noise into his helmet speaker, but inclined his head and gave a mock salute, datapad still in his left hand. “Yes, sir. Supreme Leader.”

Kylo watched as Hux turned sharply on his heel and began to retreat back down the dark hallway, stomping harder than necessary, away from the ring of light thrown off by the cylinder on the floor.

“Wait,” Kylo called, picking up the light cylinder. “Take this with you.”

Hux turned, helmet tipping briefly down to the light. “Are you insane? Extinguish that. They aren’t using light, and they’ll be able to see us coming a system away with that.”

“Then turn it off, but take it just in case. I don’t need it.” He turned the cylinder off, then withdrew his lightsaber. The beam lit the hallway dramatically, casting eerie flickering red shadows over both Hux’s polished white Stormtrooper armor and Kylo’s black pilot atmo suit.

He could sense Hux’s powerful incredulity. “Must you?”

To annoy Hux, Kylo turned the saber off, then back on again. “Fear is a potent weapon, General.”

Hux made a dismissive gesture with one hand. “Don’t kill them. Take them hostage. If they’re smugglers or slavers or anything else, I want to know, and I want them all accounted for.”

Kylo made a face beneath his helmet. “So make them identify the bodies. What difference does it make if they’re all alive?”

“It’s easier to interrogate the live ones if they think we’re merciful. You should be well aware of that.”

“It doesn’t matter, I can still get whatever I want from them.”

“You are the _Supreme Leader_. Interrogating smugglers is a waste of your time, and it’s easier for the interrogators to handle if you leave the others alive.”

Kylo was about to protest that he could just do it before he left the ship, but Hux interrupted again, exasperation clear in his voice. “Just don’t dice them up with your lightsaber! Intimidate them with it, or do whatever you need to do. But just… reflect their blaster bolts back with that, or something. And try not to kill them.”

Kylo wanted to protest. Why bother sparing the lives of some smuggling group? How could they possibly benefit from learning anything about them? He clenched his jaw and very nearly countermanded Hux’s order, then thought better of it. The challenge appealed to him. It would be more of a game like this.

“ _Fine_ ,” he agreed bitterly. “I’ll try not to kill them. And I’ll let someone else interrogate them.”

“You are wise, Supreme Leader.” Kylo could practically hear the sneer in Hux’s voice as he turned back around and began receding into the darkness again.

Kylo huffed, but deactivated his lightsaber and picked up the light cylinder, thumbing it back on. He could turn on his infrared too, but he hated having too much going on in his helmet display. He was used to using the Force to guide him.

Which, of course, he couldn’t now.

The light cylinder still didn’t reach to the tops of the high arched hallways. He turned and looked at the three mystery bodies. One was definitely still alive. Kylo could just barely sense a dormant life force. He bent over, considering removing their helmets to see what they were. But Hux was right, looking at the bodies was pointless. And if he were honest with himself, not knowing who or what they were was more exciting.

He held the light closer to their helmets, considering plunging his lightsaber into all three just to make sure they were dead and countermanding Hux’s order. He huffed, decided that it would be too petty, then pushed his way between two of the limp bodies and continued down the hallway.

He took turns randomly, and was soon lost beyond all hope. He had comm equipment wired into his helmet, but not a datapad mapping his location. When he was finished with the smugglers, he’d have to find a place where his comm would work and give orders to recover the last set of bodies, then wait with them for the Troopers to come. He'd say something about not wanting the smugglers to escape.

He extended his Force sense as far as he could, but could feel nothing - only the barest flicker of Hux, a sense of him, far off.

If he were Hux, and he were trying to eliminate Kylo, this would be a perfect opportunity. All he’d have to do would be to fill the derelict with Stormtroopers and give the order to kill Kylo on sight. They’d do it. The Stormtroopers weren’t officers, and they were programmed to follow Hux’s orders. Kylo would be able to kill some of them, but they could defeat him with numbers. And Hux could blame his death on the smugglers. It was an ideal situation, really.

Kylo should really be wary. Wary about being separated from Hux, wary about wandering this ship, wary about not bringing other Officers like Cherry that couldn’t be missed or bought by Hux.

He should be wary about making himself vulnerable. Which he had.

Kylo knew himself well enough. He wasn’t physically attractive, and the only thing anyone had ever desired from him was his power. Which was fine, it was the only thing he cared about too, and he’d made an effort to push people away since childhood. But it meant that all the sex he’d had in his life had been transactional, because no one wanted to climb in bed with a monster, not even those who wanted his power.

The problem with sex, and with his power, was that Kylo couldn’t make himself not be powerful, even for the duration of a shore leave. He could _feel_  his partner’s pleasure, and compulsively gave it back to them through the Force, feeding it back with his own. He couldn’t help himself, it was simply a product of his own enjoyment. Sex workers were never enjoying themselves as much as he was, of course, but they always caught on to the trick before penetration. They were always frightened. They always stopped and tried to give him his credits back. He always left, and let them keep it.

He’d accepted Hux’s initial _quid pro quo_  offer partially out of curiosity. Did Hux want to lull him badly enough to pretend not to be afraid when Kylo made even an impersonal sexual interaction too intense? He didn’t care about frightening Hux, and he’d have let Hux walk away if that’s what Hux wanted, though he knew Hux’s ego would never suffer that.

Instead, Hux had fucking _melted_  under Kylo’s hands, moaning and tensing as he realized what Kylo was doing. He’d pulled his mouth off Kylo’s dick long enough to call him _monster_ , to cast his cold blue glare at him through half-lidded eyes, then had gone right back to Kylo’s dick, acting like he’d never enjoyed anything as much in his life.

Things had escalated quickly that first time - Hux had been far more excited about blowing Kylo than Kylo had anticipated. He’d expected Hux to be indifferent, smug, secretly disgusted. He hadn’t expected to feel how eager Hux was as soon as his bare hands touched Kylo’s cock. The surprise of it had nearly finished Kylo in moments. Well, so? Hux liked sex. And he was good at it. He was better-looking than Kylo, and obviously ambitious. It made sense.

In fact, they had both enjoyed it so much that Kylo’s little Force trick had caused Hux to come nearly untouched in his pants, a few periphery (and surprisingly lewd) thrusts of his crotch against one of Kylo’s shins enough to finish him.

Apparently, Hux was a monster, too. And so they both enjoyed the transactional blowjobs (that Kylo had never reciprocated) more than either anticipated. The aftermath of that intense pleasure always left both of them more than a little vulnerable.

And yet, Hux had never taken advantage of it.

Once, after they’d established the usual pattern, Kylo had asked bluntly about it, about the thing that they both knew but neither mentioned.

They’d finished, and Hux had still been kneeling between his legs, eyes closed, resting his cheek on one of Kylo’s thighs. Kylo had been slowly stroking his fingers through Hux’s hair - something he’d done initially to annoy Hux, knowing he would leave these little liaisons looking less put together than he wanted. But once Kylo had loosened it, Hux’s hair was actually quite nice.

And whatever, he didn’t really care about Hux, so he always took that one nice thing for himself.

They had both been fully clothed, Kylo’s limp cock resting on the front of his pants and the General's discarded greatcoat and hat (and, if you really knew both of them, the fact that neither were wearing gloves) the only sign that anything had happened. Hux always swallowed, and divulged that he always wore a condom after that first time, so there was never any mess. Handy.

Kylo had been looking down at Hux as the haze of his orgasm lifted. He’d been studying Hux’s hair, his flushed face, the way his eyelashes rested on his pale cheeks. His rested expression. The way he’d slung an arm carelessly over Kylo’s thigh to support himself. There had been a thin sheen of sweat on his temples and forehead, and his thin lips had been swollen. Kylo always kissed him immediately after he came, licking the taste of himself from Hux’s mouth.

Hux had looked so fucking _peaceful_. Defenseless. Satisfied. It was always obvious that Hux enjoyed this a great deal. Kylo did too, of course, and why not? Who wouldn’t like getting their dick sucked consequence-free by someone who was stupid enough to believe Kylo would give him favors for it?

But that wasn’t really the point, was it?

“Why haven’t you killed me?”

Hux had opened his eyes and rolled his head, making a noise low in his throat as he glared up at Kylo. “What?”

Kylo had blinked, staring down at him, parsing the response. He could always sense Hux’s emotions more strongly after sex. That time, there had been confusion, hazy satisfaction, annoyance that Kylo was ruining the peaceful mood.

He wasn’t hiding anything. He honestly didn’t understand what Kylo was asking. Hux had _forgotten the point_ , at least in that moment.

Dangerous. So dangerous. Kylo should have killed Hux right then, snapped his neck with the hand that was still tangled in his hair. It would have served Hux right for being so stupid, for _forgetting_. Kylo didn’t need an idiot who wasted opportunities as the head of the First Order’s army.

And yet. He knew Hux wasn’t stupid. Hux wasn’t benefiting from their relationship in its current form, as an exchange of sexual favors for career-oriented ones. But maybe he had a long game. Kylo was curious about it.

After Hux’s (mostly) guileless response, Kylo had slipped his fingers from Hux’s hair to under his chin, pulling his head up forcefully, bending down to bring their faces closer together.

“If you’re trying to impress me, you need to try harder, General. Perhaps your efforts have outgrown these little meeting room liaisons.”

Hux had been confused for a moment, still fighting through a haze of post-orgasm satisfaction. He’d been suspicious, wary, and then the meaning of what Kylo had said registered.

“Are you ordering me to your bed, Supreme Leader?”

Kylo had smirked, releasing Hux and leaning back in his seat, zipping his cock back into his pants. He hadn’t thought to ever take Hux to bed, but had found himself unable to resist in the moment.

“Not ordering you, no. You’ll come because you’re…” Kylo had darted his tongue out between his lips, and watched as Hux’s eyes followed the movement. “Ambitious, aren’t you? And not my bed, no. Not yours, either. No advantages there.”

Kylo had pushed his chair back and stood, bending over Hux, running his fingers through his hair again. “But if I tell you that I’ll be in the krill-aurek suite in the central Trooper quarters at the beginning of gamma shift tomorrow, I wonder what you’ll do with that?”

They had stared at each other. It was as naked a request as either of them would make, and the only one that would work between them. After the decimation of the fleet post- _Starkiller_ , more than a third of the _Finalizer’s_  Stormtrooper allotment had been sent away, and the entire central barracks were currently deserted. It was neither of their quarters - it was nothing personal. And Kylo had thought that maybe Hux still wouldn’t want that. Kylo hadn’t been entirely sure he’d wanted it, either. He briefly considered watching the security feeds, to see if Hux would come, as eager for Kylo’s cock as ever, or if Hux would finally take the opportunity to set some kind of trap for Kylo.

There’d been no trap. They’d both shown up, and Kylo should have known better. Should have known better than to let the situation escalate, to make himself vulnerable, to watch Hux’s long game play itself out, to see how Hux would bring him down.

Because here he was, so many bad decisions later, in the middle of a death trap on an ancient ship, and he knew full well the General would never spring it.

“Stupid,” he muttered into his helmet. It was ridiculous. Hux was useless if he wasn’t bloodthirsty or ambitious enough to make this derelict ship a trap.

Not to mention the rest of it, which Kylo really needed to stop.

He really should just execute the little weasel. High Council would probably thank him.

It wasn’t long before Kylo lost the sense of Hux in the Force, too. He tried the comm again, and found Hux wasn’t picking up. Which probably meant that Kylo was deep enough in the ship to be out of the comm relay. Fine. It was what he wanted. He still didn’t sense any more smugglers, or life forms at all, so. Hux was probably fine. Kylo would have sensed a struggle. And besides, it didn’t matter if he was going to execute Hux, anyway. When they got back, or whenever.

Something did flicker in his awareness, briefly, the barest hint of something brushing against his senses. Kylo stopped, his mag-boots thumping overly-loud on the metal deck plating. He extinguished his light cylinder and listened. He heard nothing but his ventilator equipment, and held his breath, waiting for a sign of life, sending his bruised awareness out, seeking.

He heard nothing, saw nothing in the darkness. But just behind a door to the left, up the hall, he felt… _something_. It had to be smugglers, or whoever had boarded the ship before them. Or maybe it was Stormtroopers. Kylo was annoyed that he couldn’t tell from this short distance, both because of his injured awareness and whatever the Sith shielding was. The ship made everything harder than it needed to be.

Still. He held his breath, and disconnected his mag-boots from the deck, using the Force to push himself down the hall in zero gravity. It was disorienting, and slow, but he managed to stop himself vertically in relation to the door and floor outside the occupied chamber. He still sensed something, only one of something. It had to be a smuggler, because it wasn’t Hux, and the Stormtroopers would never split up.

He took several breaths to prepare himself, then locked his boots to the deck at the same time he used the Force to pry open the door. It was dark, but he used his lightsaber, stomping into the room as the erratic red light illuminated the chamber within.

Some sort of… office, or research area, with tables bolted to the floor and empty metal shelves lining the walls.

And a Sith in the center of the floor. Unmistakeable, with red skin, prominent tentacles framing its mouth, a bony brow ridge, and the small nubs of horns in pairs on its face and high up on its bald head. It wore a ratty brown robe, and its eyes glowed yellow in the darkness.

Kylo didn’t think before lunging forward and swinging his lightsaber through its form as hard as he could. His blade passed straight through the figure, sparking against the deck plating, and Kylo blinked, realizing belatedly that the Sith's body was casting its own light, and that the shelving on the wall behind it was visible through it. And also, that the Sith race had gone extinct thousands of years ago.

The last of them were thought to have died aboard the _Resolution_ , which was rumored to be haunted by their ghosts.

“What,” Kylo managed aloud, staring at it. He hadn’t actually expected to find any Sith ghosts aboard the ship.

The figure sneered, baring pointed teeth. It raised a long, bony finger with a sharp black nail on the tip, pointing it at Kylo.

_Human_  it mouthed, looking disgusted. There was no voice, but Kylo knew the Sith tongue, and he especially knew _human_  in the Sith tongue. He’d read it in their literature _so many times_.

Kylo rolled his eyes and lowered his lightsaber, but didn’t extinguish it. He answered in Basic, partially because he knew it would annoy the Sith, and partially because he'd never needed to speak Kittât aloud. “Right. You hate humans. I know. Everyone  _knows_.”

Which was true. There was actually more in Sith literature about how humans were little more than uplifted primates than there was useful knowledge about the Force. You had to skim pages of the stuff if you were studying anything they wrote.

“It’s been thousands of years, and I _still_  know you hate humans.”

The Sith figure looked slightly mollified at that, its angry expression relaxing slightly. It pointed at Kylo again, mouthing words.

_Jedi Killer_.

Kylo raised his brows, surprised. “Yeah, that’s me. I killed them all. Still do. Anyone Force sensitive, actually. I’m not picky.”

The Sith smirked. It pointed over Kylo’s shoulder, and Kylo jerked around, raising his lightsaber to illuminate the open doorway. But there was nothing there. He quickly faced the Sith again, brandishing his saber against the ghost, though it would do him no good. He couldn’t feel anything more than the barest flicker of it against his injured Force awareness, but he wasn’t sure if it could actually attack him in the Force or not. He wasn’t sure how to defend against an incorporeal opponent like this. It was a challenge, and Kylo tensed, preparing himself for it.

“And what do you want with the Jedi Killer, after three thousand years of waiting for me?”

_Treacherous, disloyal humans_ , it mouthed, pointing over his shoulder again.

Kylo frowned behind his mask, lowering his lightsaber. “What?” He thought uneasily of Hux, and his surety that Hux wouldn’t kill him. “Do you mean the ones I brought with me?” he asked, unsure where this was going, how the Sith ghost would know, why it would care.

The Sith sneered again, then raised its palm, putting it at chest level between itself and Kylo.

Then there was nothing.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Kylo’s awareness came back to him only slowly. First, he was aware of a dim light on the other side of his closed eyes. Then the slow cycling of air filtration. The quiet beep of a comm alert. Footsteps, slow at first, then louder. Voices, quiet at first, and then louder. A more persistent comm alert, the urgent sounds of an Emergency Priority. Finally, the distinct questions, asked by someone in front of him, to him specifically.

“-Leader.”

The beeping of the Emergency Comm was unceasing, more intrusive. He heard himself take a breath, the clumsy mechanical noises of a ventilation system.  He took another breath, felt his chest expand with it.  He bunched his hands into fists.

“Supreme Leader.”

Kylo sensed them before he opened his eyes - three solid presences, and two others that registered as bare flickers against his awareness. He could see the room before he opened his eyes. It was the same room he had found the Sith ghost in, now illuminated by the operational on-board lighting system, dim and flickering. The aged discoloration and stark bareness of the room were clearly visible. The shelving was unexpectedly beautiful, ornately carved of some dark green stone, stained to black with age in spots.

The three solid presences were First Order, two women and a man. They were wearing neither atmo suits nor mag-boots, and were outfitted in the distinctive uniforms of the Internal Security Bureau. The woman standing directly in front of Kylo took a step forward, seemingly hesitant. She was _definitely_ hesitant, confused. Kylo could feel her emotions very clearly - she didn’t know why he was unresponsive, why he wasn't answering her or his comms, or why he was still wearing his opaque helmet and atmo suit.

The two barely-there awarenesses flanking the First Order Officers-

He opened his eyes and saw that there were two Sith ghosts, different from the one who had spoken to him before. He turned slightly to scowl at one, then the other, ignoring the ISB Officers and the incessant beeping of his comms for a moment longer. Both Sith ghosts were dressed in more formal uniforms, with long green high-collared tunics cut away in the front to show thigh-high white boots visible beneath. Both were very clearly ghosts, holding their decapitated heads in gloved hands at chest height. Their mouth tentacles had also been neatly severed just below their jaw. They glared at Kylo with identical pairs of yellow eyes.

They could glare all they wanted. Kylo’s awareness was straddling consciousness and the Living Force more perfectly than he’d ever managed before. He felt incredible, invincible. Reaching beyond the room, he could sense a pair of Troopers a distance further down the hall, and another pair after that. He stretched himself further to sense three more pairs, all waiting with the blank patience of a standard Trooper given orders. Satisfied, he puled his awareness back to himself and turned his attention to the ISB officers. The one who had stepped forward was growing annoyed and impatient, though neither her face nor her body language gave her away.

“Supreme Leader,” she tried again. Kylo could sense she was about to give up, to give her next set of orders. She had noticed the slow turn of his helmet as he looked at the Sith ghosts, but was frustrated that he hadn’t responded to her yet.

“What are you giving up on, Loyalty Officer… Del Signa?”

She took a moment to consider how to answer Kylo's question, and Kylo interrupted before she could, pleased beyond belief that he could see her so clearly in the Force.

“You think my helmet told me who you were. You don't think I can... _see_. You don't think it's true, what they say I can do. Do you think my helmet told me you were giving up on me, too?” He gave himself a moment to enjoy her consternation before continuing. “I was meditating. Why is the ISB on this ship?”

The other two ISB Officers realized what Kylo was doing at the same time, and the threat of having their minds read made them afraid in the same way, though neither showed it outwardly. Del Signa was merely annoyed by the show of power. Kylo sensed that she hated this kind of petty display, and believed that it was unnecessary. She quickly quashed her disapproval, and schooled her thoughts to the matter at hand. She had been sent to address the Supreme Leader directly. Kylo was impressed by her presence of mind, though he should probably have expected as much from an ISB Officer. He’d only ever dealt with the department once or twice, and only since becoming Supreme Leader.

“We were sent to retrieve you, Supreme Leader. Captain Cherry has an urgent comm for your attention.”

Kylo blinked, not sure that this answered his question about why there were Loyalty Officers on the ship. But he tapped the side of his helmet to activate his internal comm system and put an end to the incessant alert chiming in his ear. Simultaneously, Del Signa held her palm out, and a near-life size bust of Captain Cherry projected in the space between them.

“Supreme Leader. Our mission aboard the _Resolution_  is complete. The techs were able to restore power, life support, and gravity to most of the ship, and did indeed find a primitive hyperspace disruptor aboard. It's like nothing we’ve ever seen before. The techs and troopers have been recalled, save for those establishing the comm relay to your location. We await your return to the ship.”

Kylo frowned. Something wasn’t right about this. He squinted through his helmet’s visor and studied Cherry’s blank expression more closely in the flickering blue light of the holocomm.

“Why have the Loyalty Officers been sent aboard to retrieve me, Captain?”

“The ISB is there on an unrelated internal matter, Supreme Leader. A power struggle below your notice. The Stormtroopers currently aboard can’t be trusted to escort you, so the ISB intervened.”

Kylo glanced around at the Loyalty Officers in the room, then the Sith ghosts. The ghosts scowled at him with their pointed teeth in their disembodied heads, and both soundlessly mouthed _treacherous humans_. Kylo frowned at them, distrustful. What had the first one done? Knocked him out, and turned up his Force powers? Why were they here, and what did they want with Kylo?

But for the moment, they were nothing. Dragging his gaze back to Del Signa, then Cherry, he acknowledged that he also didn't know why they were here, and what they wanted. This was the Sith's ship, and he felt powerful enough to repel the ghosts. They were no threat. The ISB was a threat, in its way.

“I _noticed_  Captain. Why do you believe the Stormtroopers can’t be trusted?” Hux’s program removed nearly all of their independent thoughts. Kylo had looked, more than once. He would trust any Stormtrooper with his life before he trusted one of the officers, in fact.

His eyes narrowed, suspicion blossoming.

Cherry set her jaw and shifted uncomfortably, but continued. “Of course, sir. We- that is, myself and High Command. We have reason to believe they were given orders to terminate your life.”

“By whom?”

“By Armitage Hux, sir.”

His eyebrows shot up. Perhaps Hux had planned something after all. A little less benign than Kylo had suspected. Something unclenched in his chest, the fears he’d been harboring about Hux dropping away. Incongruously, he felt a fierce sense of pride in their absence.

“It was an opportunity,” Kylo replied drily. But something about it didn’t make sense. “How did you learn of it? I was not aware you were in the General’s confidences, Captain.” In fact, Hux hated Cherry as much as she hated him, and had complained to Kylo several times about reassigning or demoting her. High Command blocked his decisions, and it amused Kylo to see him so frustrated, so he’d never intervened.

And Hux was too smart to tell someone about an attempt like this. Kylo’s suspicions grew more solid, the Force throbbing through his body.

“In fact, sir, he did tell me. Before boarding the ship, Armitage Hux disclosed to me that he was ordering a unit of disguised Stormtroopers aboard with the first transport of techs. He stated that the purpose was to… entertain you, that you would desire something to happen while you were exploring.”

Kylo kept himself from reacting aloud. The smugglers were _Stormtroopers_. That made more sense. Hux’s nervousness… Hux was only ever nervous when he made himself vulnerable. And his insistence that the smugglers be taken alive, the fact he’d been willing to wander the ship by himself…

Kylo should have known. He was angry at himself for not realizing sooner. _Of course_.

_Foolish_ , the Sith ghosts mouthed, their words echoing quietly through Kylo’s thoughts now. Absurdly, it quashed his anger. He didn’t accept judgment from ghosts that didn’t know him, that had done little more than knock him out and not even kill him. Though, admittedly, whatever that first one had done had made him feel great. He rolled his shoulders, unclenched his fists, and told himself to relax.

“A training exercise, then.” He drawled. “Hardly grounds for alarm.”

“I didn’t see it that way, sir. I saw this as a transparent attempt on your life. Armitage Hux is well-known to challenge you directly and very publicly, and I was extremely concerned for your safety.”

“I’m sure you were,” Kylo snapped, defensive suddenly. “What General Hux does in public with me is a matter between myself and the General, and not a matter for High Command. Or yourself, Captain.” He felt his temper rising again, along with his sense of the Force. The Sith ghosts grinned at him, the expression unnatural on their faces.

Cherry blinked, but otherwise gave nothing away. “I understand, sir, and will proceed with more caution in the future. But I believed Armitage Hux to be dangerous. He’s been suspected of murdering his commanding officers in the past, but there’s never been evidence against him. His singular control of the army via his programming methods, and his well-known insubordination to you, made me very concerned for your life. So I took the opportunity to take this proof of his treachery and notify High Command.”

“High Command. But not me,” Kylo replied evenly, wondering if Cherry could feel the danger from her place on the bridge of the _Finalizer_. He was getting angrier. The Loyalty Officers in the room faltered, the two in the rear taking a step back, their fear sitting heavy on Kylo’s tongue. The unflappable Del Signa merely looked bored, concern a flicker in her thoughts, there and gone again.

The Sith ghosts took a step forward, looking more eager.

“As you said, sir, there were several factors about the situation that I couldn’t be sure of. I, too, thought it might be a training exercise. I thought it best to take the matter to High Command, rather than disturbing you with it.”

“Disturbing me. With information about a suspected attempt on my life.”

Cherry straightened, but her face bore her usual half-asleep expression that hid what she was thinking. “Indeed, sir. High Command agreed that your life was in danger, that Armitage Hux was attempting a coup and to seize control of the First Order. He was was summarily judged _in absentia_ , stripped of his rank, and is currently being held pending his immediate execution aboard the _Resolution_.”

Kylo clenched his jaw as he felt his pulse slamming, his thoughts spinning. _Stripped of his rank_. Hux would hate that. This would make him angry, all of it, Cherry and High Command, and-

“Executed. You said he is to be executed.”

“Indeed, sir. One of the most volatile internal threats in the First Order. High Command was pleased to finally have the evidence they needed against him.”

He looked again at the Loyalty Officers, then at the Sith ghosts.

_Weakness_ , they mouthed at him. _Strength. Anger_.

They were a distraction. Kylo focused, as well as he could through the surge of anger and emotion that threatened to overwhelm him. “I’m sure they were pleased.” High Command hated Hux, and it was true what Cherry said about their attempts to eliminate him. Kylo enjoyed their internal struggles immensely. Or had, until just now. “You informed High Command, but not me. You allowed me to board the ship believing that the General was making an attempt on my life.”

“Former General,” Cherry corrected. “And I-”

“I was not consulted about stripping the General of my army of his rank? Of the execution of the officer that I’ve made my… personal liaison? Stop the execution at once, and reinstate General Hux.”

Cherry’s eyebrows went up. “You were not consulted sir, no. Armitage Hux has a suspected criminal history with the Order that you were not aware of, and High Command decided it was a low-priority internal matter, below your notice, and one that needed to be handled quickly.”

“I’m _countermanding_  the execution, Captain. Do you understand that order?”

“All due respect sir, you cannot. There were also concerns that Armitage Hux had been… too close to you-”

Kylo’s face flamed, and he felt his pulse slamming again, his fury overtaking him. Suddenly, even through the holo, he could feel Cherry’s emotions - her confidence, her relief that she was not updating him in person, her smug satisfaction about her role-

Kylo removed his helmet and pried the enormous ventilator controls off the front of his pilot atmo suit. The ventilator hit the deck with a loud clang, confirming that the gravity controls were working. The cold, stale air of the ship hit his face full-on. It was bracing, and did nothing to quell his anger. The two Loyalty Officers behind Del Segna took another step back. This time, even Del Segna showed a flash of worry on her face, her thoughts going to her weapon and the best time to use it. Kylo stared at her, then the holo of Cherry.

“And these ISB officers are here for my _safety_.”

Cherry’s eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth to respond-

In the blink of an eye, far faster than he’d ever managed before, his lightsaber was out, and the three ISB agents were decapitated, his lightsaber back on his belt before their bodies hit the floor. The two Sith ghosts glanced down, pivoting and pointing their disembodied heads at the floor. They looked back up at him in approval.

The holo had fallen to the floor with Del Segna’s body, the projection of Captain Cherry now on its side. Cherry’s expression hadn’t changed, though Kylo sensed her disappointment, a hint of fear, but mostly relief that she was not in the room with him.

“All due respect Supreme Leader, Loyalty Officers are highly skilled and specially trained. That was a colossal waste of resources. And for no reason. Now I'm simply going to order the transports away and leave. There isn’t anything you can do about it.”

_Strength_ , the Sith mouthed again. Kylo could hear the echoes of their hissing, sibilant language more loudly in his thoughts now. He closed his eyes, gathering his awareness to him, trying to come up with a solution to this problem. He wouldn't simply be left behind to suffocate and die.

He opened his eyes again, smiling, allowing his hands to relax at his side. He righted Cherry’s projection so that she appeared from the floor, waist up.

“You’re right, Captain. I understand the situation. And I can play along, of course. Is the decision about my life final, too? Or is there a way to… reward loyalty?”

Cherry narrowed her eyes. “Perhaps an arrangement can be made, Supreme Leader.”

Kylo grinned. “You do not disappoint, Captain Cherry.” He waved a hand negligently. “I have no problem with executing Hux, per se. I do not appreciate being left out of the loop. You know what he’s like.”

Cherry smiled, hard and cruel. “I do. Then you agree, the opportunity was well-taken?”

Kylo thinned his lips into a more subdued smile, and the two Sith smiled as well. “The Force was with you, Captain Cherry.” He gestured at the bodies on the floor, stepping forward, setting his helmet on the floor, and grabbing a holocomm from another of the ISB officers, holding it up for Cherry to see. “Can you show me Hux’s execution, then? I’d like to see it.”

“Of course, Supreme Leader.”

The second holo blinked on, displaying Hux, still in his full Stormtrooper armor, hands bound behind his back and bent over a massive and scarred wooden table in a giant chamber containing shelves of twinkling holocron cubes. Hux had found the archive. It was real. Kylo blinked, not expecting that.

There was a Loyalty Officer on either side of Hux. One held a vibro-blade, the other held a blaster against the back of Hux’s neck, presumably in the gap between the helmet and armor, vulnerable now that Hux had been bent awkwardly forward.

“The Supreme Leader is now witnessing the execution,” Cherry’s voice came over both holos, thin and electronic and tinny with the echo. “You may begin.”

Kylo could taste Hux’s terror across the ship, thick and coppery on his tongue, Hux’s thoughts echoing through his own. It was difficult to focus.

Then, he grasped Hux’s thoughts fully, and everything became so much easier. There were two other awarenesses in the room with him. Kylo could see them very clearly in the holo, could feel their life force in his thoughts.

He raised his palm, focusing his own awareness on the Loyalty Officers. They were confident, excited. One had a distinct thought - _finally got the bastard_. The other was in disbelief that he was the one carrying out such a historic execution.

Kylo’s fingers twitched, and they both jerked. They dropped their weapons, the vibro-blade just missing Hux, and both agents clasped gloved hands going to their throats, eyes bulging. Another twitch of Kylo’s fingers, and their lives gave a distinctive snap as they were extinguished, their awarenesses filtering into the living Force like ripples in a pond.

Kylo lowered his hand. He’d never felt death so distinctly before. The sensation was incredible, as if the waves were washing over him. Closing his eyes, he let himself revel in the feeling as he reached his hand out again, wrapping his mind around Cherry’s confusion.

“What has happened? Report,” Cherry snapped, her voice sounding angry. “Impossible. You can’t simply _kill people through the_ -”

They were her last words. Kylo found her fury easily. He snapped her neck, the Force sending the gentle ripples over his awareness again, the satisfying _snap_  of her life ending. He even sensed her body hitting the floor of the command deck on the _Finalizer_.

Eyes still closed, he spoke. “Is Captain Peavey on the Command Deck?”

He heard a static switchover, the comm frequency changing points. “Here, sir.” Peavey’s voice was recognizable. Old, tired. Peavey was the off-shift commander, and generally kept out of this sort of infighting. Still.

“Did you play a part in this?”

Peavey inhaled after a moment, and Kylo grunted, holding up a hand to silence him before he answered. Kylo could simply sense the truth from the _Resolution_ , he still felt the power of the Force thrumming through him. Peavey was confused, unsure of what happened. Not immediately fearful, nor did he seem to understand why Cherry had died.

It was good enough. Kylo didn’t want to waste time evaluating Peavey’s loyalty now, he could do it aboard later.

“Nevermind. Do you plan on recalling the transports and leaving me here?”

“No, sir.” His reply was immediate.

“Do you believe that I can sense you from here, Captain, and that I’d be able to stop you if you gave the order? Can everyone on the bridge hear me?”

Peavey hesitated, but only for a second. “Yes, sir. I believe you. And yes. Everyone can hear you. You are on the main bridge comm.”

“Good. Then you have command, Captain. I will be aboard shortly on the last transport from the _Resolution_. He made a motion with his wrists, and both comms snapped, ending the transmission.

He opened his eyes slowly, centering himself in the room. He took a deep breath of the stale air, and looked at the two Sith ghosts.

“Are you supposed to teach me something? Fight me? Why are you here?”

One of the ghosts closed its eyes. It responded in Kylo’s thoughts without moving its mouth, its voice high and sibilant. _We are always here_.

The other spoke its response aloud, though the words still echoed through his thoughts. _You are no Sith_.

“No.” It was simple. Kylo found philosophy boring. His interests only ever lied in the practical uses of the Force.

_Human_ , it said, sounding disgusted. _We have no lessons left. No purpose. We only exist._

The other opened its eyes, speaking with its mouth this time in the same high voice. _Passion. Strength. Power. Victory. Freedom. Are these not the things you crave?_

“I don’t crave them. I have them.” He frowned. “But I’m not passionate. Not anymore.”

_You have it_ , the other Sith intoned. _You found it_.

They both shifted, turning to the door, and abruptly, Hux’s terror wrapped around his awareness, threading its way through the shielded halls of the ship. Kylo’s heart was thumping again, and he took a single step, then another.

He turned off his mag boots, then ran blindly through the halls, past the pairs of stationed comm Troopers, following the awareness of Hux to the holocron library.

Hux was there, the body of one of the executioners slumped over his back. Hux didn’t know what was happening, was terrified for his life. He hadn’t heard Kylo come in. He thought the executioners had killed each other, that another Loyalty Officer, or Cherry, would be in shortly to finish him.

He was bound and bent forward over the table, which was low enough to be used while seated on the floor. He’d been forced into a kneeling position, and had been secured face-down, blocking him from seeing anything else in the room.

Kylo approached, his steps soft. His pulse was still racing, and he told himself it was Hux’s terror, that whatever power he’d gained from meditation, it caused him to feel…

To feel… like this. Angry. Afraid. Ridiculously, utterly relieved.

And. _Passion_.

He walked around to the front of the table. He could see the rapid rise and fall of the back plate of Hux’s armor, his terrified breaths audible over his helmet’s voice controls.

Hux’s fear curled sour through Kylo’s awareness, even as everything Hux was doing - his heavy breathing, the audible gasps through his helmet, and even the position - reminded Kylo of what they’d done with that armor before. He hated that they couldn’t use it again without both of them thinking of this moment. They’d both enjoyed it so much.

One of his favorite things about the Stormtrooper armor had been removing Hux’s helmet at the end, revealing his face. His expression, his sweaty, mussed hair, his flush, how absolutely _wrecked_  and helpless he looked. Hux would never allow himself to be seen like that under any other circumstances. Kylo liked to believe that no one else had seen it, ever.

Kylo bent forward over the table and, gently, his gloved fingers found the underside of Hux’s helmet, sliding along the edge to the releases. Feeling the touch, Hux began breathing harder, making more vocal gasping noises. His terror spiked. He didn’t know who had come, what they were about to do to him.

Kylo didn’t want to see his expression.

“Hux,” he said instead, weakly. He never used Hux’s name, only ever his title. He sat down next to him on the table. “It’s just me.”

Hux held his breath, then made a sound that was difficult to interpret through the vocoder.

“ _Kylo_.”

His voice was… odd. He’d used Kylo’s first name. His emotions were erratic. He wanted to believe that Kylo would come for him. He thought the execution must have happened with Kylo’s approval. Didn’t want to believe it. If Kylo wanted to kill him, he would have done it with his bare hands, he would have done it personally a long time ago. Hux didn’t want to think about Kylo doing it while-

“I wouldn’t,” Kylo snapped. “I didn’t know about the execution.” He put his head in his hands. “That was apparently Cherry and High Command. I killed her.”

Hux’s breathing leveled out. He was making an effort to calm himself down, to make sure his voice came out calm. “She was alive minutes ago. You did not kill her.”

Kylo turned to look at him, incredulous. Of course Hux would try to argue with him after he saved his life. “I did! I did it the same way I killed the ISB guards that were here with you.” He made his point by shoving the body of the one that collapsed across Hux’s back to the floor.

“ _You_  killed them?”

“You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

Hux was still incredulous, unwilling to believe this. “How?”

“Through the holo. I could just…” he reached his hand out in illustration, then glanced down. Hux couldn’t see the gesture. Kylo didn’t want to admit that he could do it because he sensed Hux’s fear across the ship, that he was afraid for Hux’s life, that-

He stopped himself. Closed his eyes. “I used the holos to kill them with the Force.”

Hux’s thoughts ground to a halt. “You can do that?”

“Not usually. Not before.” He laid down on his back next to Hux, staring at the ceiling, arms outstretched. The ceiling was high, decorated with harsh geometrical patterns that were mostly crumbled and lost with age. Hux was still bound facedown on the table, but Kylo didn’t want to release him yet. “I’ve never wanted someone to die that badly before.”

And he’d never been so anchored in the Force before. He closed his eyes and sent his thoughts out again, spiraling around the ship, through the halls, sensing the hum of the engines, the flow of the power and breathable air currents, the twist of the gravity generators, the repellent touch of whatever shielding the Sith had built into the ship to block such Force exploration, though he pushed through it easily now. He counted the remaining Stormtroopers, the last of the techs being loaded onto the first transport back to the _Finalizer_. The smugglers, who were actually badly-disguised Troopers in mismatched off-duty gear, now that Kylo examined them. They were all in a good mood, oblivious to what had happened aboard the ship. They’d all enjoyed the exercise, and were thankful that Kylo had not killed them, as they were warned he might.

Kylo’s eyes opened, and he turned his head to the side. He’d laid himself out on the opposite side of the table, so all he could see were Hux’s hands bound behind his back, his hip, the curve of his ass.

“They told me about your training exercise. The fake smugglers.”

Hux hummed, oddly calm now. “I thought you’d find out yourself, the first group you encountered. Did you kill any of them?”

Kylo rolled his head back to the ceiling and closed his eyes. “No. I didn’t find any more of them. Cherry told me. She told me you sent them to kill me.”

“I didn’t,” Hux said quickly. But he paused, considering, confused. His voice through the helmet came out less steady, more resigned. “I should have. It was a good opportunity.”

“I know you didn’t. And I know you could have. I thought of it right after we split up.” Kylo snorted. “You did it exactly how I imagined you would, except you disguised the Troopers and only gave them stun blasters.”

Silence fell between them for another few minutes. Kylo turned his thoughts inward, restless. He traced his organic systems with the Force, his nerve endings, the flow of his blood through his body. His heart. He’d never been as comfortable in his own skin, had never felt as alive as he currently did. The firm sense of his physical self was in sharp contrast to his thoughts, which were messy and confusing.

Hux was a problem. Hux was annoying. Hux was ambitious. Hux was trying to kill him. But they tried to execute Hux, and Kylo had stopped them.

Abruptly, he came back to himself, sitting up, still restless. He undid the bindings around Hux’s wrists, and the others that held him to the table at his waist, shoulders, and head. He rolled Hux over onto his back, and Hux allowed it, his thoughts having shifted back to the morose awareness of his near-execution.

Kylo leaned over him, one arm braced on the other side of Hux’s body, and stared into the blankness of his helmet.

“I killed them across the holocomm, Hux. I got so angry about how they were going to execute you. It gave me the power to do it. I sensed your fear, and I simply…” This time he did the gesture, and Hux saw it. “I grabbed them through you, and I ended them.”

Hux’s pulse increased at this admission, but his breathing remained steady. He wasn’t afraid. He was curious about what Kylo was going to say next, where all this was going. Kylo closed his eyes. Seeing Hux's thoughts had always made him feel superior, before. Now it terrified him.

He didn’t have words for his next question, not the right ones. Not ones that he could say aloud. He leaned further down, touching his forehead to Hux’s helmet, letting his hair curtain his face. He closed his eyes, and pushed what words he did have directly into Hux’s thoughts, just like the Sith ghosts had earlier.

_When? When did this happen?_

Hux jumped slightly at the intrusion, and Kylo’s hand found his wrist, holding him down. Hux flexed his hand in his armored glove. Kylo felt a sick twist in his stomach when Hux showed no confusion at the question, knew exactly what Kylo meant.

“You don’t know? Maybe it was different for you.”

Hux’s tone was slightly mocking and smug, because of course it was, even now. But he was thoughtful, and seemed more agitated by the idea that Kylo didn’t know the _when_ , and wasn’t angry about _what_  they were actually talking about. It made Kylo’s heart twist in his chest.

There was a _when_ , for Kylo. He tried not to think about it. It didn’t exist, outside the quarters they had requisitioned in the abandoned Stormtrooper area.

Asking Hux to meet him there that first time had been a test. It should have been a challenge - how badly did Hux want his favors? Badly enough to let Kylo fuck him?

It wasn’t. It wasn’t that. But Kylo had made the mistake of giving himself an entire day to think about it. He'd tried to tell himself he was reading too much into it, that all Hux wanted was favors and opportunity. Kylo had been useless after his own bold suggestion, obsessively considering every angle, everything that could possibly happen if he and Hux met for sex. He thought about how he might be making himself weak, and how Hux might be showing weakness, too. But it had kept coming back to _just sex_. He told himself it was only sex.

With Hux. Who was the only person who had been able to tolerate Kylo. But they hadn’t tried the bed yet.

Kylo had showed up thirty minutes early to the designated quarters, and had barely gotten through the doors before he’d been shocked back into indecision. Hux had been sitting at the edge of the bed in the tiny room, sipping a mug of tea, barefoot and wearing nothing but a black silk dressing gown. The room smelled of the ‘fresher, and his hair was hanging loose and free of product, lighter and looser than Kylo had ever seen it.

He’d never even seen Hux out of uniform before. He’d considered several different ways to coerce him out of it. And yet, Hux had been waiting for him, stripped down to nearly nothing.

He’d made a face as if Kylo had said something colossally stupid, draining his mug and setting it aside in a single smooth motion. After a brief pause and a casual arch of his eyebrows, Hux had broken the silence between them.

“Finally. I was expecting your patience to wear out much earlier. Are you going to stand there, or are you finally going to prove that you can do more than sit still for sex?”

Hux had uncrossed his legs then, flashing a bare calf with sparse red hair, then stood. The robe fell open slightly, revealing a narrow stripe of pale flesh that went nearly to his navel.

He’d looked smaller somehow, and nearly defenseless out of his uniform. His expression suggested nothing of the sort, but… he was _nervous_ , nervous enough that Kylo could sense it, nervous enough to be broadcasting it. Kylo had swallowed, very nearly able to taste Hux’s vulnerability. There had been no trap then, no deception. No tricks. Just… that tentative nervousness.

It had reflected Kylo’s own thoughts almost perfectly, painfully. Like looking into a mirror.

Kylo should have been angry at Hux’s preparedness, he should have resisted more. He should have been more insulting, less eager. Instead, he’d fallen on Hux, stripping him of that robe and nearly eating him alive. Hux had been covered with bite and suck marks, even before Kylo had made it all the way down to his dick, before Kylo had learned just how much Hux enjoyed having his ass eaten out.

They hadn’t even gotten around to penetration that time. It had taken until the third meeting. Just their mouths and their hands, it had been exciting enough for both of them.

Something had clicked then. Kylo had told himself that it was just physical attraction. Previously, Hux, his unpleasant coworker, had merely been performing a service that he’d believed to be transactional. What they did in the empty Stormtrooper wing, it was still that. But Kylo was just… he knew he was physically attracted to Hux, and he told himself that was good. If he was having sex with Hux, it was a bonus that Hux was hot.

But. That insult, that pained expression, that robe. The fact that Hux had truly not had any other agenda that evening. That was the _when_. The thing he only thought about after they were done, for the brief time they collapsed in each other’s arms in the dark. It was okay to feel things then.

But. He couldn’t help it.

“Fuck,” he said aloud, annoyed, rolling onto his back again. “You’re insufferable when you’re right.”

Hux was silent for a moment. Apparently, he was as unsure how to respond to all this as Kylo was.

“I found your holocron library,” Hux tried instead, in lieu of addressing any of that.

Kylo smirked up at the ceiling. “Did you find it, or did they drag you here?”

Hux was silent again, but his indignation was answer enough.

“I didn’t even really want the holocrons. I hate that shit.”

“Are you going to take them anyway?”

“Sure. They’re priceless cultural artifacts. I don’t want anyone else to have them.”

“Fine.” Hux sat up, making a small grunting noise, stretching his neck and arms. “Are the Troopers still in comm range? We can have them crate them up.”

“Hm. They should be.” Kylo closed his eyes, extended himself out again. “Yeah, I think so. But wait a second.” He grabbed Hux’s wrist before Hux could push himself up and off the table. The helmet swiveled back to look at him, and Kylo propped himself on one elbow.

“Before we go. There’s something else I want to do on this ship. While you’re in the armor.” Kylo wanted to make this into a good memory, before it permanently became a bad one. He wanted that suit of armor back. It was too good to waste.

Surprise and incredulity curled through Hux’s thoughts, and he tried to pull his wrist back. “You must be joking. This ship hasn’t had a breathable atmosphere in thousands of years, up until thirty minutes ago. I don’t know why you removed your helmet. What’s more, I was secured for execution minutes ago. What makes you think I want to?”

Kylo arched his eyebrows, and pulled on Hux’s awareness using the Force. It was so easy to pull on his low-level arousal, ever-present in his thoughts when he was near Kylo, and stronger now after their recent conversation. Even without that, or the current boost to his awareness in the Force, he knew exactly how to play Hux to get what he wanted.

Hux shuddered, and jerked his hand away. “You’re a menace. I thought your Force powers weren’t working today.”

“They got better. Much better. Good enough to kill these Loyalty Officers.”

Hux made a snorting noise, but sat back down at the table, kicking one of the bodies on the floor. “Do you know how much time and resources you’ve wasted by killing these Loyalty Officers?”

“That was one of the last things that Cherry told me. After I killed the ones in the room with me.”

Hux made a disgusted noise. “How many?”

“Five total. But that’s it. Well, and Cherry.”

“You sound sufficiently recovered. They should have been able to stop even you. Major Mashtots was training them for exactly that, actually.”

Major Mashtots was the head of the ISB, and one of the members of High Command. Kylo frowned, but decided to digest that later. He turned his thoughts back to the matter at hand, and grinned. “My powers are doing better. Do you want to see?”

“Kylo. They tried to kill me. In this room. Their bodies are right here.”

“Don’t act like that doesn’t make it better for you.” He rolled over onto his stomach. “Fear of death always gets me hard.”

Hux’s helmet turned to look at him. “I’m not you. I’m a normal person.”

“You aren’t. And if you don’t want to, just leave. But don’t act like you haven’t been thinking about it since you put your armor on.”

“Again, I’m not the monster you are. I was wearing this armor for its intended purpose of keeping me alive.”

But Kylo could sense that Hux was lying, and also fighting with himself. He was relieved, and he knew what Kylo was actually asking, that Kylo wanted him, and very much needed him after what happened. The curl of arousal that he’d slipped Hux earlier was nothing compared to how _badly_  Kylo needed to touch Hux. But if Hux couldn’t, if Hux needed to wait, Kylo could abide that.

But he hoped he wouldn’t. The armor really was very hot, and it would be a shame if they couldn’t use it again.

Hux was hesitating. Kylo, still lying on his stomach, grabbed Hux’s hand again. “You haven’t left yet.”

Kylo could practically feel Hux rolling his eyes. “Your impulse control needs work. Fine.”

Kylo grinned, sitting up on the tabletop. He pushed Hux back, positioning him so he was laid out along the low table, facing up, stretched out like a meal at a banquet, the reflection of the geometric patterns of the ceiling and the twinkling holocrons catching along the smooth curves of his white armor plating.

Eagerness and lust and a twist of other, stronger emotions gathered in Kylo’s chest as he practically climbed Hux’s body, stopping with Hux’s hips framed by his knees, one hand over Hux’s heart, his face over his mask again.

He wanted to give it all to Hux. His eagerness, his relief, his… everything, all of this. He wanted to give it away and see if it came back again, and give it away again. The way he could only ever do with Hux. Hux was the only one who wanted it from him. But he hesitated again, for just a moment.

“You’re sure?” Kylo asked, voice quiet. He could see his breath fog the shine on the white of Hux’s mask. He swallowed. “It’s… it’s a lot. Right now.”

It was something he’d never asked before. He’d always taken Hux’s want for granted. But this time. He had to ask, and Hux had to say yes.

“It is.” Hux wrapped his fingers around Kylo’s wrist, the one positioned on his armor. “Take it.”

Kylo exhaled, and it was like a dam breaking. He let it all flow into Hux, and got it all back. The entirety, all his same feelings, his same emotions. The way he had that first time, even before they began. The way they did every time.

This time, he didn’t tell himself it was a game. If it ever was, he’d lost.

The emotions were immediate, imperative, and almost too much. The power rushing between them had both of them breathing hard, even before they’d touched skin to skin. Kylo wanted to see Hux’s face, to kiss his mouth, to feel Hux’s breath on his lips and cheeks, to run his bare fingers through his hair.

His hand strayed up to the latches on Hux’s helmet, but he paused, grinning. “I want to fuck you first, before I take your helmet off.”

Hux arched his hips up. The effect was somewhat lost in the armor, but he could still feel the force of Hux’s arousal, how powerful it was, how he _wanted_.

“You _animal_. Fine, get it over with. If you can. Certainly you didn’t bring slick with you onto this shipwreck.”

“Are you kidding?” Kylo sat up, pulling his gloves off with his teeth before rolling Hux over onto his stomach. The armor was freezing to the touch, but he knew inside, Hux would be burning. “Do you think I would tell you to wear the Stormtrooper armor and _not_  bend you over a console while we were here?”

“You’re joking.” His tone was derisive, but Kylo could see that he knew it was true, had planned on it happening himself, though his ideas had been more nebulous, more fantasy than Kylo’s plans had. “Your cock would freeze and fall off if we tried to fuck without the atmo equipment working.”

“The Force works in mysterious ways,” Kylo said. “It gave us the opportunity to use this very excellent library.”

Hux snorted again, but braced himself against the table, pushing his hips up slightly to give Kylo better access. Kylo’s fingers found the seams in the armor, and he unhooked the back of the tightly-sculpted plate that curved down over Hux’s ass and between his legs, undoing the latches and atmo seals at the thigh plates, the front plate, and the mid-back plate. His fingers lingered at the latch that lied just between his legs, lingering at the warmth radiating from the airtight seams in the armor.

He grinned, and a wicked thought occurred to him. Leaving his hand in place, he stretched himself back up, resting his lips near the seam between his neck armor and helmet, lips as close as he could get to the light bodysuit that Hux wore beneath.

“You seem eager to get on with it, General.” He clicked his tongue, remembering suddenly. “I forgot to tell you, you’ve been formally stripped of rank by the High Council. So right now, you really are just my good little soldier.”

Hux gave a perfunctory grunt in his helmet, shifting his hips to push himself onto Kylo’s hand. “You aren’t serious.”

Kylo made an indistinct sound of mock sympathy. “I am. We’ll have to find someone who can fix that later. But right now, your only job is to wear the armor and follow orders.”

Hux’s body went rigid, and Kylo could practically feel him burn with shame all over, trembling slightly with the force of his arousal. Part of what made the Stormtrooper armor so hot was that Hux really did submit to everything Kylo ordered him to do while wearing it, without question. It was the game they played. Pretending to be some soldier getting fucked by the Supreme Leader somehow hit every single one of Hux’s buttons.

And no one knew more about that than Kylo.

Hux made a reluctant moaning noise, barely audible through his vocoder.

“Shh,” Kylo whispered into his neck, knowing Hux would feel his breath. “I know. I know what this does to you. I haven’t even touched you yet, and you’re already so hot.” Kylo shifted his weight onto his knees and wrapped his free hand around Hux’s stomach, resting it lightly against the armor there. “I can feel how hot you are, even through the armor. Just wearing it turns you on.” He allowed himself a grin into Hux’s neck, and imagined he could feel the delicate tremble of Hux’s belly against his palm.

“You know I don’t have to take it off, don’t you? You know the kinds of things I can do to you, just like this.”

Kylo twitched the fingers on the hand that still rested between Hux’s thighs, and Hux jerked violently beneath him, giving a surprised shout as Kylo used the Force to stroke the sensation of his own tongue along the crack of Hux’s ass, letting Hux feel the caress of his breath just at his hole.

He held Hux tighter as he squirmed. “I told you, you need to be very still, and very quiet. Can you do that for me?”

Hux made a grunting noise, and his spine stiffened beneath Kylo as he braced himself. “You’re… you’re a monster,” he panted, his voice broken up.

“No, I told you, you’re no longer a general. Like this, you’re just… Armitage, just a soldier. And what should you say to me?”

Kylo had never used his first name before, and he wasn’t sure how Hux would react to that. Apparently it was appropriate, because the wave of arousal and shame that came from Hux at the admonishment hit Kylo incredibly hard, causing him to shift uncomfortably and grit his teeth as he tried to control himself.

Hux moaned quietly again, and pulled himself together the best he could. “Yes, Supreme Leader.”

“Good,” Kylo breathed, tightening his grip on Hux’s stomach, letting him feel the touch of his hand against his skin, the ghost of his fingertips running down the delicate trail of hair from navel to groin. “So good.”

He let Hux feel the sensation of his tongue again, lightly against his hole, then pushing past the rim, tugging, teasing. Hux began trembling beneath him, but stayed still and quiet. After a moment, Kylo exhaled, amused.

“You aren’t wearing the bottom half of the bodysuit below your armor. Now who’s the one who’s too eager?”

Hux was stuck on an answer, not knowing the Good Soldier version of the sharp retort he was biting back. Kylo could still see the response in his thoughts, and he smiled into Hux’s neck again, interrupting him before he could speak.

“You tell me when you’ve had enough, and I’ll give you my fingers.”

“Close,” Hux panted. “I’m close. This is… a lot. And just. I don’t need prep, I had your cock last night. Quick.”

Kylo twitched his fingers, and gave Hux the sensation of his tongue licking a stripe from just below his balls to his hole again. “You did take my cock last night. And you still want it.” Kylo gave Hux the feeling of his tongue in his hole, stretching, more firm now. “You’re insatiable. So good for me, Armitage. Always prepared, just like the good soldier you are.”

Hux grit his teeth against a moan, but stayed steady and still, just as Kylo had asked. Kylo could feel how close he was, the throbbing tightness of his cock, how it almost hurt inside the armor.

“Please,” Hux grit out, after only a few more moments of Kylo’s Force rimming. “Please, no more of this, I need it.”

Kylo stopped his stimulation, but stayed in place along Hux’s back. “What do you need?”

The indignity of this burned, the shame of it so hot in Hux’s chest. It was delicious. He could feel Hux’s impulse to touch himself, to relieve the pressure, to end it.

“Your cock. I need your cock, and I need you to touch me.” He paused, and Kylo could feel Hux bracing himself for the next part. “Supreme Leader. Please. I need you.”

Kylo hadn’t expected the last part, and it took a moment for him to recover.

“Yes. _Hux_. I know.”

Kylo was nearly out of dirty talk himself, and wasn’t as good at it as he’d liked. He mostly made it up as he went along, but Hux always seemed up for it, at least to a point.

He undid the last of the latches and seals, lifting the plate away and revealing Hux’s ass, bare and warm, with the impression of the plate seals standing out red along his hips. Hux pushed himself up on his knees, giving Kylo easier access.

Kylo had never gotten Hux this close without taking off the plate before, and uncovering Hux’s willing ass was nearly too much for him. He’d hastily torn off the plating and atmo seals on his own pilot suit, and was currently squeezing lube onto his fingers, kept on a pouch on his belt, nearly shaking with the desire to fuck Hux already.

He started with two fingers, because they were both ready, and Hux had indeed taken his dick for a long time last night. He kept his other hand on Hux’s hip, kneeling behind Hux on the table.

“You can move now. Let me know what you need, how much you like it.”

Hux made a choking sound, and flexed his ass higher into the air, his voice tight and nearly indistinct through the vocoder of his helmet. “Faster. I don’t need much, just your cock. Hurry and get past the teasing part, just touch me, please-”

Kylo twisted his hand to stroke Hux’s prostate, and Hux made another choking sound, shivering and flexing into Kylo’s touch. The sensation of the stimulation burned through Hux and back into Kylo, making his own ass throb in response. Hux had once told him that it was possible to achieve a different kind of orgasm with prostate stimulation. He hadn’t tried it on Hux, but very much wanted Hux to try it on him. They hadn’t gotten that far yet, with Kylo letting himself be vulnerable in that way.

Maybe later.

He finished faster than he ever had with his fingers, and only slicked himself briefly before plunging into Hux. He couldn’t help it - he pushed himself in slowly, to the base, closing his eyes and moaning aloud, Hux doing the same, tensing beneath him, his helmet dulling the sounds of his pleasure slightly.

“Fuck, you’re tight. You’re always so tight. Every time, how do you-”

“ _Fuck me_ ,” Hux demanded, shifting his hips to pull himself off Kylo’s dick. “Fuck me, touch me, do _something_." Hux sounded emphatic, his voice hard now, trying to give Kylo orders, which was a good sign he was close. His submission only ever lasted so long.

Then, Hux surprised Kylo, his voice coming out of the helmet quieter, more defeated. "I can’t stand it.”

Kylo couldn’t either. He opened his eyes and pulled out, teasing the head of his dick against Hux’s rim. Hux made a sound of protest, and Kylo quickly pushed himself back inside, but the second thrust almost finished him. Hux was enjoying this too much. Kylo was enjoying it too much. He was going to finish fast, faster than he wanted.

He moved one hand off Hux’s hip, turning Hux’s helmet to the side, pinning it beneath one palm. His fingers spanned the side of it, nearly covering the white plasteel. The lube smeared on the visor, and he bore down harder, pleased with the contrast between his hand and the pristine helmet, the glinting plasteel and the filthy lube smeared beneath his fingers.

It was too much, all too much. He could use the Force to stop himself, to make it last longer, to send his mind elsewhere and make Hux wait on his orgasm-

But why would he.

Frustrated, he grunted and pulled out completely. Hux made a noise of protest, but Kylo was already rolling him over, tearing at the latches and seals that covered the armor plates at his crotch, his stomach, the plates on the front of his thighs. They came off fast, partially out of frustration, partially because of the Force. Hux seemed stunned, gasping and making a keening noise, overwhelmed, needing Kylo to touch him, to finish him, to put him out of his misery.

The reveal of Hux’s bare flesh was less dramatic this time. The body stocking beneath covered Hux’s stomach, and Kylo pushed it up, revealing hot, flushed skin and the delicate trail of red-gold hair. He growled as he bent over to lick it, tasting sweat and precome against Hux’s stomach. His dick was fully erect, so hard that it was deep red, nearly purple. His thighs were-

“Fuck,” he said aloud again. He really was so far gone. He threw Hux’s boots over his shoulders, nearly bent him in half, and began fucking him in earnest from the front. He grabbed Hux’s dick, and Hux finished almost immediately, the force of his orgasm hitting Kylo hard enough that he finished inside Hux just from that, try though he might to make himself last. He let the intensity of it wash over him, through him - he was so connected to the Force, and to Hux, that he felt outside himself, and also more himself and a part of Hux and everything around them than he ever had. He leaned forward, forcing Hux’s knees by his head. Hux was very flexible.

The last part, he needed to do. He needed to do it very badly. He pushed Hux’s legs aside, laying himself down on Hux’s chest, and reached up to unlatch Hux’s helmet, revealing his fucked out, exhausted, tired expression. To Kylo’s surprise, Hux had showered before putting on the armor, and his hair was the soft, ungelled red-gold it was when they met in the Trooper quarters, mussed and damp and stuck to his forehead. His face was sweaty, flushed, his eyebrows drawn together over his nose. His lips were parted, his teeth visible. He was panting hard, and Kylo could feel his breath against his face.

Kylo took one of Hux's hands and leaned down to kiss him. He couldn’t help it. Had no excuse, except the orgasm had been intense and Hux had come so hard that he’d briefly wondered if he would die. He might have. Kylo wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t. Maybe that was part of the curse of the ship, and he was doomed to forever be the outcast human ghost aboard.

Hux was definitely still alive, hot and responsive below his lips. Kylo kissed him slowly and indulgently, tongue warm, lips nipping at one another. He tasted Hux’s breath in his mouth, gasping himself, pushing his own exhaustion and satisfaction into Hux with the Force.

After a moment, he shifted, squeezing his hand and pulling Hux’s body stocking down his neck with the other, then sucked a bite lower down, where it would be hidden by Hux’s collar. Hux hummed in satisfaction.

“Monster,” he muttered. “You nearly killed both of us. I felt that.”

“Maybe I did. But we’re still alive.”

Hux considered this. “Yes. We both are, aren’t we?” He paused, his next question reluctant. “You were serious, about my rank?”

“That’s what Cherry told me. You’ll have to give the order to High Command to reinstate you.”

“Me?” Hux was amused. “I can do that. Why wouldn’t I give myself a promotion at the same time?”

Kylo closed his eyes, groaning, frustrated. He pushed himself off of Hux, rolling back onto his back. “You always ask me that.”

“You always say no. You told me the sex wasn’t good enough yet. How about now?”

Kylo kept his eyes closed. He couldn’t deny it with a straight face. He tried the honesty aloud instead.

“It will kill me if it’s much better than that.”

“Well then.”

Kylo was silent for a moment, contemplating the afternoon. He kept his eyes closed, but his newfound honesty with the situation made him feel free and alive, and he asked another honest question.

“Were you serious, about what you said before that?”

Hux’s smug satisfaction dissipated abruptly, and Kylo heard him shift, propping himself up on one elbow to look down at him. “About what?”

“About not wanting to kill me.”

And more than that. But Hux knew what Kylo meant. Hux took a moment to respond, and Kylo could sense he was trying to find the words for what he wanted to say.

“I’m… yes. I meant it. And you?”

Kylo opened his eyes, looking up at Hux. Hux’s expression was as composed and neutral as ever, but his loose hair framed his face where he leaned over Kylo, and his blue eyes studied him sharply. Kylo wanted to kiss him again. He leaned up and did.

“Yeah.”

Hux’s eyebrows went up, and Kylo grinned, pushing himself up into a sitting position and swinging his legs over the side of the table.

He froze, frowning, as he finally noticed the group of Sith aliens that had gathered around them at some point. The robed figure from before, the one who still had its head and had knocked him out, and about a dozen uniformed beheaded Sith behind it. Kylo was weary, tensing as he kept eye contact with the robed figure.

“You don’t see them?”

“See what?” Hux asked, only mildly curious as he groped around the table, looking for the pieces of his armor.

“The ghosts.”

Hux’s head jerked up in alarm, looking around the room. After a moment, he exhaled and went back to fastening his bare ass back into his armor. “What ghosts? Did you really come here looking for a haunted shipwreck? Your made-up Sith holocrons exist, and that should be enough. Somehow, they’re the only thing left on the ship.”

_Human_ , the robed Sith mouthed again in disgust. Once again, the admonishment was silent, Kylo could no longer hear the voice in his thoughts.

“Perverts,” he muttered, tucking his dick back in his pants and re-arranging the panels to seal up the atmo suit again. He turned back to Hux, annoyed. “Give the order to empty the holocrons from this room. I want all this shit on the _Finalizer_.”

“Where are you going to keep it?” Hux asked, annoyed as he bent over to retrieve one of the thigh pieces from where it had fallen next to a dead Loyalty Officer.

Kylo turned to look back at the ghosts. Two in the front grinned at him, their heads in their arms. The one in the robe shifted. Kylo could sense it in the Force, and equally sensed that it had no power over him.

He could stay longer. Try to speak to the ghosts, to find out why the ship was still intact, why it still had its holocron library. He could try and ask the Sith why they still manifested in the Force, and if they had anything to teach him.

He could do all that. He could endure their _human_  insults. But ultimately, he didn’t really care. He’d had his fun for the day.

“Storage. With the rest of the trash.”

Hux grunted, still annoyed, but mostly back in order save for the helmet under his arm. “As you wish, Supreme Leader.”


End file.
